SAGE Organizes SAGEfinity
Photo by Jessa Marie Pedrola
Student Advocates for Gender Equality (SAGE), a recently formed progressive LGBT organization in USC, held SAGEfinity in Handuraw, Lahug, Cebu City yesterday. Present in the event were SAGE President, Earl Vincent Endab, and a number of students who support the organization’s cause.
During SAGEfinity, talks regarding SOGIE (sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression) took place, and the three were properly distinguished from one another. From the talk, “sexual orientation is determined by one’s heart; gender identity is determined by one’s mind; and gender expression is determined by how one expresses himself.”
The different terms that people use to describe LGBTs were clarified and tackled by the speaker (e.g. a person is bisexual when he is attracted sexually, physically, and emotionally to both the opposite sex and the same sex; a person is transgender when he thinks of himself as the opposite sex). Additionally, from the discussion, the term gender preference was also proven incorrect, for one cannot “choose” his or her own gender. Still from the discussion, ignorance concerning these terms may offend the people who know the actual meaning, as it is improper to call a person something one does not understand.
SAGE aims to achieve equality by spreading awareness of the oppression that LGBTs around the world are currently experiencing.
