Leftists Reaffirm Commitment to LGBT Rights Special

Manila - On Thursday, delegates representing Macau, Indonesia, Canada, United States, and the Philippines met to revive a three year old resolution that aims to protect the rights of LGBT people in the leftist movement.

The delegates met at a breakaway session during the fourth International Assembly of the ILPS (International League of People's Struggle), an international alliance of anti-imperialist grassroots organizations. According to the session facilitators, Tina Shauf of Gabriela-USA, Caro Galvez of LesboND, and Oscar Atadero of Progay-Philippines, the ILPS identified LGBT rights as its 18th area of concern during its third International Assembly in 2008. In that assembly, Commission 18 was formed to create a resolution that outlined how it would help the movement protect and promote LGBT rights. Part of the resolution states: "By the League's (ILPS) inclusion of the LGBT concern, the role of the LGBT community has been recognized as a potential potent force in the anti-imperialist formations and struggle, and the problem of homophobia is regarded as a peoples' issue and not just the exclusive domain and burden of the LGBT community." However, the commission was not able to follow through on most of its tasks as it was faced with some organizational challenges. This time around, the commission has decided to form a secretariat that will monitor its progress to ensure that it will achieve its objectives in the next three years. The commission also came out with a new resolution. One of the immediate actions that resulted from the new resolution was for ILPS to send a message of solidarity to the LGBT community in Baguio City, Philippines, where LGBT people and allies have recently been under attack by the city council and the catholic church for performing same-sex holy unions.

Ron de Vera

Commission 18 is a multi-sectoral group composed of women's rights workers, migrant workers, indigenous peoples' rights advocates, the clergy, as well as LGBT rights activists.

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Ron de Vera

Wahu Kaara (on stage, in orange), ILPS Vice-Chairperson, asks delegates to rise against imperialism. ILPS is an international alliance of 350 organizations from 40 countries.

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