GROUP, INC. 39
SAN JULIAN PRIDE ADVOCACY
Title of Project: UnivLink: Organizing for Empowerment and Inclusion of LGBT Students of Eastern Samar State University Campuses (Pilot)
San Julian Pride is an emerging grassroots organization of gay men and transwomen advocating LGBT rights in one of the poorest areas of the Philippines – San Julian, Eastern Samar. It aims to promote unity, mutual support and total well-being of the gay men and transgender women of San Julian, Eastern Samar and other municipalities and advocate equality of people of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions (SOGIE). UnivLink: Inclusion of LGBT Students of Eastern Samar State University (ESSU) Campuses project empowers LGBT students through rights awareness, creation of safe spaces, and organized campus involvement. Without legal protection at the national level, Philippines’ LGBTs remain a marginalized and stigmatized minority group prone to discrimination that adversely impact their lives, including their education. Schools, which are supposed to be safe environments, are among the institutions where LGBT discrimination occurs. Unsupported and unorganized in this hostile environment, LGBT students are unable to stand for themselves. Becoming organized and duly accredited by the school, and connected with supportive agencies at the national level will enable LGBT students in the ESSU system to feel safe, assertive of their rights, become participative in students’ political sphere, and generally thrive academically and socially in their campuses. The project responds to these concerns by enhancing San Julian Pride’s organizational capacity cognizant of its being the only organization of its kind in the Samar region; orienting them about protective laws and their rights as students; equipping them with basic leadership and organizational skills; supporting the, in forming an ESSU inter-campus network of LGBT student organizations; and building sustainability measures that will support the longevity of the campus organizations.
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