Days after winning Miss Trans Global Philippines 2021, Ms. Albiean Revalde admitted that she had never felt the glory of winning or as a 'Queen' as they say. What usually happens after competitions pre-pandemic like after-parties or a bunch of people congratulating you in person was not what awaited her after, but instead, a messy room. But, on the bright side, this only made it easier for her to keep herself grounded and go back to her purpose.
Hence, she spent the following days preparing and focusing on raising her points through interviews with various media outlets while also keeping up with her piling academic workloads as an Engineering student in PUP. "Sabi ko nga before joining MTG PH, I should remember why I am here. It is because of the purpose. As long as I can say this early on, well, I will feel like a winner already." she declares.
One of her advocacies is #ProtectTransKids, rooted deeply in her senior high school years in PUP SHS. More than two years ago, she and other students in her batch were not allowed to graduate if they did not abide by the hair policy. Her previous school sets a certain standard for male students' hair with a complete disregard for trans kids.
"Sabi nila, antayin n'yo muna mag college bago kayo maging totoo sa sarili niyo," Ms. Albie recalls, "Which is so problematic, kasi sa mga panahon na yan kasi, it poses trans kids on a more vulnerable level,"
Youth is the stage of one's life wherein we begin to express ourselves, open up ourselves to the world more than ever, and having someone stomp on it will profoundly affect our behavior during our adulthood. Hence, it's not a surprise if many adults today have mental health issues and are connected to experiences during their youth.
For Ms. Albie, she recognized how this could be traumatizing. Together with other student leaders, they went from classroom to classroom to listen and gather stories of students affected by the policy. "From there, nakita ko talaga kung paano manginig 'yong mga LGBTQ+ students and even straight na mahaba ang buhok," she recollects, "Ayaw nang pumasok sa classroom dahil nga natatakot silang ma-strip off of their identities and expressions and mas pipili na lang nila na hindi na mag-aral." These testimonies were the reality of a lot of LGBTQ+ and trans individuals. They would instead stop studying because of the fear of not being accepted for who they are, and worse, as Ms. Albie had mentioned, they would be stripped of their gender identity and expression. Putting people into boxes is a disregard for the diversity that is evident in our society.
"A lot of people blame us trans and LGBTQ+ individuals kesho we 'failed in life' because we chose our identities more than conformity to the system para mag-succeed kami," she emphasizes. "But then we get back to the question: Sino ba ang gumagawa ng ganitions conditions? Sino ba ang nagpupush sa amin to be put in these conditions at an early stage?"
And from this experience, Albie realized how important it is to listen to people, not just LGBTQ+ individuals but also from all walks of life and communities.
National Minority Advocate
Being a student leader in an organization that is the broadest and longest existing alliance, part of Ms. Albie's responsibility is intersectional. Hence part of her campaign, as she is now Miss Trans Global Philippines 2021, is not only about the LGBTQ+ community but also the rights of our indigenous groups, "We do not integrate with them. We are in the bubbles of our privilege. We don't know how it's like to be in such communities." Albie talks about indigenous groups, "We do not know how it is like to be pointed with [a] gun by the reactionary police and military, and we do not know that depth of their calls."
As an Engineering major, she is aware of how their profession is an arm of big corporations when taking the ancestral domains of our indigenous groups. "Ancestral domains are not just lands. It is their culture. It is our history. There is something spiritual in those lands that we must appreciate, that we must respect. Our progress in society is not measured by the new things that we put up—the modernity that we put up—but the way we treat our traditions, the way we empower our traditions, and this is best represented by our indigenous people."
More importantly, she emphasized how the indigenous groups are being denied their right to education. For example, Lumad Bakwit schools are schools for people who want to have education amidst the increasing militarization in their area. These are schools set up by the leaders of various indigenous groups together with religious Non-governmental Organizations (NGO). Yet, even with their genuine and honest intentions of giving their people their right to education, they are being red-tagged and were forced to close. Moreover, Ms. Albie noticed how the experiences of our national minority groups were similar to what LGBTQ+ individuals experience. "I see the national minorities' existence as a form of revolution, as something political in itself because we are visible. We cannot hide who we are. It reflects our features, our expressions, and our identities. These are the very things that shake the foundations of this system."
The rights of National Minority Groups and protecting trans kids aren't the only things that are part of her campaign. She is also determined to break barriers in the male-dominated college that she is in.
First Year in the PUP College of Engineering and Architecture (CEA) Building
After not passing the aptitude test for the BS Architecture in College of Architecture and Fine Arts (now, CADBE) in PUP, Ms. Albie started browsing other programs in Engineering and Architecture (colloquially known as CEA) building, and that led her to Industrial Engineering.
"I don't wanna go away to CEA. I am here in CEA na. I wanna change things. I wanna be in what they say is a male-dominated place and I wanna break barriers kahit mahirap," she answers when asked why she stayed and pursued a program in CEA, even after not passing in her chosen program, instead of programs in PUP Main.
In her first year as an Industrial Engineering student at the College of Engineering, she was shocked by the male domination in the college, which she mentions is rooted in the patriarchal system. In addition, she noticed the difference between how the male professors treat male students compared to LGBTQ+ and women students.
As the campaign head of Sandigan ng Mag-aaral para sa Sambayanan (SAMASA), Ms. Albie consolidated issues of students particularly, those in her college. Throughout her course of interviewing students, she cannot help but be angry and terrified at this macho-feudal system that the engineering institutions have. "I have interviewed students in the engineering first-hand kung paano merong mga professors na nagpapasa ng pornographic material just so they could graduate—that alone is very predatory. 'Yong mas malala pa, sabi ng iilan na students na nakausap ko, merong pang photos ng stolen private photos ng mga girl students within the classroom. 'Yung phone ilalagay sa baba sa palda, ganoon daw ang shots." she shares.
And in her own experience, she says the professors expect double effort from them—LGBTQ+ and women students—compared to the male students. "They expect, even if its sounds like a support or a motivation to us trans or LGBTQ+ members as well as women in this institution, that they expect us to excel. They expect double from us—triple from us—compared to our male counterparts because they see that we have compromised para ma-raise yung identities na meron tayo na they deem wrong or mababa sa lipunan."
Due to the portrayal of LGBTQ+ individuals in mass media, she also experienced being treated less seriously. For instance, during her first year, people were expecting her to be funny. So, they felt extremely comfortable around her at first, and when they realized that she is not the stereotypical trans individual that is being portrayed in television shows, they started to avoid her.
Moreover, she raised the issue of reducing one's value to his/her clothes. By doing this, we continue to feed the predatory behavior of professors, instead of eradicating it. "The more we feed the reason that 'respeto na lang sa mga professors na para hindi sila ma-distract'. And the more we feed these mentalities, the more we feed their predatory tendencies and the more we justify their actions and enable their actions."
And for these very reasons, Ms. Albie describes her experience during her first year at CEA as "traumatic." But still, she knows that she has to do the work, or the cycle will continue for decades.
"I recognize na lumabas man ako sa engineering there is still a male-domination and it's absurd to think about that, to think that there is one gender that dominates a lot of aspects—the system itself—and we must change that and so I am not just working as an industrial engineering student breaking barriers but as well as an advocate who maximizes platforms even up to pageantry to break these systems." she says.
And to break these systems and for a more gender-inclusive country, for Ms. Albie, first is the passing of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Expression (SOGIE) Equality bill.
Intersectionality
"The SOGIE Equality Bill will not only safeguard [an] LGBTQ+ individual, but as well as those with diverse expressions kahit straight kapa, that will safeguard you as well. And even indigenous people, they view SOGIE Bill as something intersectional as well kasi it safeguards those expressions of indigenous people who are being ridiculed as pananamit nila," she explains, "Kahit marami pa yung advocates na gumagalaw kung walang gagawin sa legality [walang mangyayari]."
In terms of PUP, she says that there is still more work to be done, but we have already started with establishing the Center for Inclusion and Diversity, and the Gender and Development Office. In addition, she is now working with the PUP Student Regent, various organizations, and administrators for a more gender-inclusive Sintang Paaralan.
Her work as a national minority advocate and advocacies on protecting LGBTQ+ individuals, women, and students in PUP shows how she values intersectionality.
"You should transcend beyond your sector because only through uniting with other sectors only through making them realize that our fight to equality and liberation is not isolated to our sectors only, but we have one real enemy, and we must work together to fight that," she highlights the importance of being intersectional. "For example, the plight of our LGBTQ+ community and women's plight, it is all rooted to patriarchy, even the plight of our farmers' sector is related to macho feudalism, and macho feudalism is the root of patriarchy. So, in that sense, we get to see the denomination and if we can choose to recognize who the real enemy is, which I would say is the US imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism, and macho feudalism. If we get to see that, only then can we truly win altogether as a society."
Aspirations and advice
Ms. Albie may have always been close to the people, as seen through her advocacies and campaigns. However, when asked what her other goals are in the future, one of the things that she mentioned is to be a mom and a wife. And yet, society makes it difficult for her to attain this. “Wala pa kaming rights para magpakasal. Wala pa kaming rights para magkaanak kaya ayun ‘yung pinagtatrabahuhan ko din para sa aking advocacies.”
Lastly, she shared some advice with members of the LGBTQ+ community. The first is to be persistent.
"In a world that constantly confines our identity to a box to be material for capital, to be things for exploitation—as society confines you, I ask you to be persistent with your identity. It might be hard for you now but there is a certain essentiality to it because our identities transcend beyond generations. It will certainly pave the way for the future of our people and as we live here in this life, I hope we get to see that. We do not just live for ourselves to have a certain comfortability but also think of those who are after us so we must persist with who we are."
To the closeted members of the community, she gave out a few things as well; it is to know how essential it is to do something first so that the future generations would live less difficult lives. "It's okay if you are not out yet, or if you do not want to be out, that is something that you do not owe the society naman. Actually, we shouldn't be put in that position, dapat it should be natural for us to be anything that we want but at this stage there is a certain essentiality to coming out as it gives visibility and persists our visibility to those who will come after us, so it will be easier for them ika nga. As our pioneers like Marsha P. Johnson persisted even amidst persecution which has blaze the trail for us, now it is our work to further this visibility and break beyond the barriers that will break this system. So that we can cement this trail and mas maging madali ang pagtakbo, and paglakad, at ang pag-rise ng mga future generations, not just LGBTQ+ and trans indiv and women but gender itself and social classes in itself."
"You don't have to change who you are. You don't have to be shameful of who you are. You do not have to wish to be born to another body. What makes you think na sana hindi ka na lang naging ganyan is because of the conditions that were put to you sa society and you just don't want yourself or your kids to be put in that condition as well that's why you wish to change sometimes." Ms. Albie concludes, "But I want you to remember that you are natural. It is not your fault and you don't need changing but our society is the one that is not natural. It is man-made and we can change it as well, and it actually needs constant changing kasi it is vital as progress natin as human beings." Also available on:
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