Militant group Bahaghari on Monday condemned the profiling and arrests being conducted by the Makati City Philippine National Police against transgender women.
“The name of the operation plan itself, Oplan X-Men, disgustingly reeks of discrimination and transphobia, and the invalidation of the gender identity of trans women,” said Bahaghari.
The arrests are also based on the stereotyping of the gender expression of trans women, whom the PNP derisively refer to as “ladyboys,” and are then tagged immediately as prostitutes to be profiled in the police’s supposed “anti-trafficking” scheme, the group said.
“Apparently for the PNP, every trans woman is guilty until proven otherwise, much like all the other victims of the national police’s campaign of extrajudicial killings that victimizes the poor and the marginalized,” they said.
