BAGUIO CITY -- Gay rights groups condemned Thursday the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) ruling rejecting a gay group’s intent to run for a seat in the House of Representatives.

The Comelec’s decision disallowing “Ang Ladlad” (Out of the Closet), a group representing lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders, to register as a political party on grounds that it advocates immorality sent shock waves through the gay community.

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"This is not a moral, but a political issue," Rei Baquirin of the Baguio Pride Network remarked in a press briefing Thursday.

She said homosexuals, like her, experience various forms of discrimination and rejecting a group's intent to represent them in Congress is adding insult to injury.

The Comelec, in issuing its decision, said the group "tolerates immorality which offends religious beliefs" and exposes young people to "an environment that does not conform to the teachings of our faith." The ruling even cited passages from the Bible and the Quran condemning homosexuality.

But Baquirin said homosexuals are merely seeking for equality with heterosexuals.

Cyrene Reyes of the group “Lesbond” said they do not expect discrimination from the supposed learned people of the Comelec.

She said the poll body should first cleanse its ranks from equally immoral people than call them names on the basis of their gender preference.

Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, in defending the decision, said the group is already represented because there are a sufficient number of gays, bisexuals and transgender in Congress.

"We do not ask for special rights but equal recognition under the law," said Jude Baggo of Gay Pride.

Leila de Lima, chairwoman of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), also denounced the Comelec’s ruling as "retrogressive.” She said it "smacks of discrimination and prejudice."

She promised to support Ang Ladlad's efforts to gain recognition as a party.

Pastor Myke Sotero of the Metropolitan Community Churches said that presently, homosexuals experience various forms of discrimination -- from the use of comfort rooms, job promotion and application and even the freedom to marry the people with the same gender is limited.

"There are those who could not come out in the open for fear of rejection," said Sotero, who officiates same-sex marriages, albeit the ceremony is not recognized by the country's laws.

Homosexuals are generally accepted in the Philippines, despite the dominant Roman Catholic religion's rejection of same-sex relations.

Ang Ladlad’s leader, Danton Remoto, a prominent gay activist and English professor at the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University, filed a petition Wednesday asking the commission to reconsider its ruling, which he said was based largely on religious, not legal, grounds.

There are no laws in the Philippines against homosexuality or against sexual discrimination. If his group is allowed to run and wins a congressional seat, Remoto said he hopes to push for the adoption of a proposed anti-discrimination bill that has been languishing for nine years because of insufficient support.

"The law is just silent," he said. "We are just invisible in the law."

He said his group's platform does not include same-sex marriage, but pushes for nondiscrimination in the workplace and schools. He cited instances in which companies allegedly refused to hire gays and schools required parents to sign a document certifying their children were not gay.

Candidates and political parties planning to run in the May 2010 national elections have until December 1 to apply with the Comelec, which must give its approval.

The head of the commission's legal department, Ismael Rafanan, said Ang Ladlad's petition will be reviewed by the seven-member commission. If it reaffirms the rejection, Ang Ladlad can bring the case to the Supreme Court for a final ruling. (Rimaliza Opiña of Sun.Star Baguio/AP/Sunnex)