Philippine elections 2016 news: Filipino transgender woman wins Congress seat, celebrates historic win for LGBT community
Neophyte politician and transgender Geraldine Roman is the first transgender politician elected to the House of Representatives in the predominantly Catholic Philippines.
"The politics of bigotry, hatred and discrimination did not triumph. What triumphed was the politics of love, acceptance and respect," the 49-year-old Roman told Agence France-Press (AFP) about the May 9 elections where she secured a sweeping victory of 62% support in the congressional district of Bataan, northwest of Manila.
According to Manila Bulletin, Roman succeeded her mother who has stepped down after completing a maximum of three terms of service as a representative. Roman's father, who died in 2014, was also a former congressman.
She said she's keen on proving her critics wrong who stereotype the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people as frivolous and who dismissed her as a one-issue politician.
"At the start, my opponents are trying to convert my gender into an issue and it turns out that people don't mind," Roman told Reuters. "People look beyond the gender and look at what you offer and what's in your heart. That is the most important thing."
Roman vowed to push for the anti-discrimination bill and to campaign for the lifting of restrictions imposed on transgender Filipinos from changing their name and gender. She added that her priority is the people of Bataan and in providing scholarships to the country's underprivileged.
Roman, who was born male but has been living as a woman for two decades now, speaks three other languages: Spanish, French, and Italian. She has worked as a senior editor at the Spanish News Agency and met her partner of 18 years in Spain.
She legally changed her name and gender in the 1990s after undergoing a sex reassignment surgery.
Roman hopes that her historic victory as the first transgender politician in the country would inspire LGBT Filipinos. She said, "I want to inspire everybody. There are many factors for discrimination: on the basis of gender, age, educational attainment, creed. So to all people who experience discrimination, I want to inspire them."
