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Volume XXIX Number 2 2020
Revisiting Intersectional Identities:
Voices of Poor Bakla Youth
in Rural Philippines
Athena Charanne R. Presto*
University of the Philippines Diliman
ABSTRACT
This is an exploratory study of poor bakla youth in a rural
area in the Philippines. It addresses the gap in knowledge since the
bulk of the literature on the Filipino LGBT community focuses
on the urban setting, especially in Metro Manila and with adults
as respondents. Through in-depth interviewing, this paper pays
attention to experiences of rural poor bakla youth which are shaped
by their disadvantaged position in terms of gender, class, age, and
rural-urban location. Using intersectionality as a framework, this
paper exposes experiences that have been eclipsed in the Philippine
literature on bakla, as well as confirms assertions in the current
literature. Unique in this paper are narratives of not needing to
come out as bakla, anecdotes of bakla’s conditional acceptance in
a rural school setting, financial contribution as validation of worth
vis-à-vis a marginalized status, androgynous performance of
household tasks, and silence as discrimination management. It also
©2020 Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, University of the Philippines
ISSN 0117-9489
Review of Women’s Studies 29 (2): 113-146
* Correspondence address: 1st Floor, Silangang Palma Hall, Africa St.,
University of the Philippines Quezon City 1101; Email: arpresto@up.edu.ph