LGBT Pinoy kids abused more than straight peers – UNICEF

Children who are homosexual, bisexual or transgender are statistically more likely to be abused than their straight peers, according to the country's first National Baseline Study on Violence Against Children launched on Tuesday.

The study by the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) showed that eight out of 10 LGBT respondents reported physical or psychological abuse while more than third reported they were sexually violated.

Of the 3,866 children who participated in the study across 17 regions, 1,822 and 1820 identified as straight males and females, and 171 self-identified as LGBT.

In the study, 75 percent of LGBT children reported physical abuse, ten percent above males (65.9 percent) and females (61.8 percent).

Psychological abuse is also reported more often by LGBT children (78.5 percent) than heterosexual children (63.7 percent in males and 60.0 percent in females).

The rate of sexual abuse against LGBT respondents (33.8 percent) is also higher than either straight males or females (28.8 percent  and 21.4 percent).

Furthermore, the responses of LGBT boys on experiencing psychological and sexual violence (85.1 and 36.7 percent) are higher than LGBT girls (75.8 percent and 23.0 percent).

UNICEF Country Representative Lotta Sylwander said researchers were surprised at the high rates of violence against boys and LGBT children.

"The fact that has shocked us, surprised us—[that] maybe we all should've been aware of—is that boys in the Philippines [report] much higher in sexual violence and that LGBT children are also very much at risk of sexual violence," Sylwander said.

LGBT children, "in fact," reported three times higher rates of sexual abuse than straight children, she said.

Sylwander was also alarmed that most of the violence experienced by both boys and girls, regardless of sexual identification, happened "in the places where they should be most safe: in the home, and in the school."

"The most common perpetrators are parents, cousins, and siblings. It happens most commonly in the home, where they should be protected," she said.

Comparing the prevalence of abuse against LGBT children with other countries is made difficult by the fact that the Philippines'  NBS-VAC was the only study to include LGBT-specific data.

"We note that only the Philippines study included the LGBT, so we're quite unique in that that part was included, so the other studies did not. We don't know," Child Protection Network director Dr. Bernadette Madrid said.

Based on Sweden's studies, Sylwander posited, "Although there's nothing systematic as far as I know, the suspicion is the LGBT community is more vulnerable to sexual violence—all violence, in fact."

While no government service exists that caters specifically to LGBT children, the Department of Social Welfare and Development has centers all over the country which takes in abused children.

Social Welfare and Development Secretary Judy Taguiwalo added that the 4Ps program aims to address poverty, one of the causes behind violence against children.

“We have the 4Ps. It’s not directly addressing violence against children, but it has helped provide a more favorable environment so that the children can go to school, the mothers can supervise them better,” Taguiwalo said.

Madrid suggested changing laws to legally protect children from abuse, especially from sexual violence.

“Violence can be prevented and it doesn’t have to happen, but the thing is it will need the whole of government. There are two laws that we need to pass. One is increasing the age of statutory rape because we have one of the youngest in the world at below 12 years old and it has not been changed for decades,” she said.

University of the Philippines – Manila professor and Principal Scientific Investigator Laurie Ramiro added that community programs must be improved to properly support victims of abuse.

"They don't have any built-in mechanism to evaluate the effects, much more the impact, of this prevention or intervention programs. I think they really need to be trained in terms of evaluation," Ramiro said.

Finally, UNICEF Children's Representative Christian Saludar said children must be informed of their rights and the rights of their fellow children.

"The most significant way for us to address this issue is educating the children at home and at school, in the community, regarding their rights, for them to fight for their rights and for them to avoid doing something that would also violate the rights of their other children," Saludar said. — BM, GMA News