Jassy Kris C. Tapayan 11- Mercury SOGIE Bill SOGIE bill or The Sexual orientation and Gender Identity Expression Equality also known as Antidiscrimination bill this is intended to prevent various economic and public accommodationrelated acts of discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression in short this bill seeks to protect all people from any kind of discriminations. Even the "straights" are included and also protected by this bill but I think SOGIE bill is mainly focus on the LGBTQ communtiy who are the usual victims of discriminations in the society. SOGIE bill aims to cover the discriminations they are facing like the denial of access to establishments, facilities, utilities, or services. They can now actually file charges if any person, corporation, or organization commits these acts. In the past SOGIE bill was actually filed many times by Akbayan party list and different senators including Mirriam-Defensor Santiago, she was the first one to file this bill in 2000 but was not entertained and was stalled in the House after the 3rd reading. SOGIE bill was filed continuosly but up until now in 2019 it is still under discussion and became the longest-running bill. This shows that Philippines does still not completely approved and support the LGTBQ community officially even though they have garnered many supporters. There are still small groups of people who are against the idea especially the Christian community that believes homosexuality as a sin based on the holy scripture.The President, Rodrigo Duterte referred Anti-discrimination bill and said that he will not certify a bill that will appear to be or is a class legislation and stated "You can’t legislate for a particular class only, that would be discrimination". Since Anti-discrimination applies to everyone I think this bill should be considered and applied instead of SOGIE bill where the focus is mainly on the LGBTQ community, with Anti-discrimination bill every individual is included by protection of the bill.
