Many have praised Rodrigo Duterte for his liberal views on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community as well as for helping enact an anti-discrimination ordinance in Davao City in 2012 when he was mayor.
He likewise championed the LGBTQ community during the 2016 presidential campaign.
But after three years of being on top, Duterte’s views on the LGBTQ community and its concerns have conveyed playful, often moral, subtexts. Recently he said that homosexuality is something that could be cured.
For Pride Month, VERA Files presents a timeline of the president’s statements on LGBTQ issues.
Sources
ABS-CBN News, What Duterte thinks of homosexuality, same-sex marriage, July 12, 2015
Philippine Daily Inquirer, Duterte: I respect Pacquiao’s opinion, Feb. 18, 2016
RTVM, Meeting with the Filipino community in Myanmar (Speech), March 19, 2017
RTVM, Question and Answer – Pasay City, March 23. 2017
ABS-CBN News, Duterte tells Gascon: ‘You are so fixated on the deaths of young males,’ Sept. 16, 2017
CNN Philippines, Duterte taunts Gascon: ‘Are you gay or a pedophile?’ Sept. 17, 2017
Rappler, Duterte accuses Gascon of politicizing CHR, Sept. 16, 2017
Presidential Communications Operations Office, Speech of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte during the 7th LGBT Davao’s Year-End Gathering, Dec. 17, 2017
Presidential Communications Operations Office, Speech of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte during his Meeting with the Filipino Community in Japan, May 30, 2019
World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, Stop discrimination against homosexual men and women, May 17, 2011
(Guided by the code of principles of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, VERA Files tracks the false claims, flip-flops, misleading statements of public officials and figures, and debunks them with factual evidence. Find out more about this initiative and our methodology.)
