05/06/2026
OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF ARTISTA NG BAYAN ON THE DISCRIMINATION OF TRANS IDENTITY INSIDE THE COLLEGE OF ARTS AND LETTERS
The College of Arts and Letters Student Council (CALSC) and the College of Arts and Letters FST Council (CALFSTC), together with the different organizations part of the Voice of CAL (VoCAL), strongly condemns the transphobic remarks made by certain faculty members against Ms. Obi Magsombol, a trans woman, an anthropologist, a writer, and a graduate student from the Department of Anthropology. The above signatories stand in solidarity with Ms. Magsombol. Remarks such as those were repeatedly dismissed as “jokes,” which the CALSC, the CALFSTC, VoCAL, and the CAL Community strongly denounce. We recognize that this heedless complicity perpetuates greater harms to the trans and greater q***r community, especially to trans women, who bear the dual brunt of q***rphobia and male chauvinism characteristic to the Philippines’ machofeudal cultural make-up, a pervasive transmisogyny that seeps into even the most progressive of cultural spaces in the country.
Such statements are unacceptable and run contrary to what CAL upholds. The students and faculty of CAL, of which may be writers, artists, cultural workers, academics, and activists, are expected to produce art and literature amidst the lack of physical spaces and security. The faculty members involved in Ms. Magsombol’s case infringed on not only Ms. Magsombol’s identity, but also the inclusive spaces CAL has cultivated throughout the years. What has been repeatedly done to Ms. Magsombol through discriminatory remarks invalidating her womanhood goes beyond a disregard of academic and artistic freedom, and even more so is a slighting of the ontological freedom of trans women in culture and the arts and the wider academe.
Moreover, the CALSC, the CALFSTC, and VoCAL believe that those entrusted with positions of authority must be held to the highest standards of accountability. The community collectively shapes a college that stands against any manifestation of transphobia, discrimination, and disregard on q***r identities. Therefore, we call for a scientific, prompt, impartial, and transparent investigation into this case. We further urge the CAL administration to reaffirm its commitment to protecting the rights, safety, and dignity of all students, and to strengthen policies and educational initiatives that promote inclusivity and condemn transphobia.
We recognize that transmisogyny is a product of the patriarchy and, more nakedly, the machofeudal relations that continue to persist in the Philippines. While there is an irony in receiving such jarring news of transphobia during Pride Month, we urge the community to exhaust this irony through acts of solidarity to the trans community, that is, through conscientious cultural restructuring and unyielding collective action. The same way we must assert that ample academic space is ours, we must assert that there is a place for transgender academics and cultural practitioners in the space. We further implore that the community not be dismissive or be bystanders to any manifestation of transphobia, but rather openly confront, report, and exhaust all measures available and necessary as co-members in our shared space in CAL. The doors of the CALSC, the CALFSTC, and all the formations of VoCAL are open in offering any form of support to members of the transgender community.
Transphobia has no space in CAL. Trans women are women. We stand in solidarity with Ms. Magsombol, and believe that there is only true freedom if a trans woman’s personhood is genuinely embraced and celebrated and are able to freely express in spaces for the arts, for academia, for CAL, and for the nation.
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