Council offers venue for gay rights debate

BAGUIO CITY—Leaders of the city’s homosexual community and various churches faced off at the city council on Monday over gay rights issues that have pricked the sensibilities of religious groups in the summer capital.

The council had asked the churches and the gay community to attend the session to shed light on a June 25 ceremony of the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) of Metro Baguio, which solemnized the union of eight gay couples.

But questions aired by councilors at the session challenged the legitimacy of the MCC.

The MCC had urged reporters to avoid using the phrase “gay wedding.” Myke Sotero, MCC pastor, said the MCC did not violate any law.

The council addressed a resolution filed by Councilor Edison Bilog which directs the National Bureau of Investigation and the Baguio police to investigate the MCC ceremony.

Councilor Philian Weygan-Allan also filed a resolution banning same sex unions in the city.

“This would be a hate law,” Sotero said. He said the couples, whose unions were recognized by MCC, “could only change their [civil] status over Facebook” because same-sex marriages are illegal.

Councilor Elmer Datuin, chair of the council’s committee on tourism, said Baguio had earned a reputation as the “same-sex wedding capital of the Philippines,” which he said was a “horrible image” for the city.

“The significance of holy union is between two people in love,” said Sotero.

MCC, which has been ministering to the gay community since 2009, engages in “Bible sharing and worship services,” he said.

The church’s mission is to “proclaim that God loves them,” Sotero said. But mainstream churches took a different tack.

The Baguio-Benguet Ecumenical Group (BBEG) urged the city council to help lobby against House Bill No. 1483, the proposed anti-discrimination act protecting homosexuals, transsexuals and individuals with other sexual orientations.

Lawyer Alexander Bangsoy, BBEG spokesperson, said the measure, filed by Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño, would legitimize new genders other than male and female.