‘Maogmang Lugar’ has LGBTQ+ service desk

By Jason B. Neola

NAGA CITY --- An ordinance mandating the city government to establish an LGBTQ+ service desk was enacted by Sangguniang Panlungsod on Dec. 22 to provide frontline services to clients who are lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, and queer+.

The ordinance authored by City Councilor Joselito S.A. Del Rosario was enacted based on the declared policy of the city government as provided for in City Ordinance No. 2019-024, otherwise known as the “Anti-SOGIE Discrimination Ordinance of Naga City.”

Members of the LGBTQ+ community and their friends in Naga City during the 2019 Pride March, an international human rights movement that calls for active solidarity with other marginalized communities. JBN/REYBAYLON/CEPPIO

The anti-SOGUE ordinance recognizes the vital contributions of LGBTQ+ in the community and it aims to actively work for the elimination of discrimination among them.

The new ordinance, according to Del Rosario, will further raise the city’s commitment to provide services to all the sectors of the community, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity, by allowing equal access to the local government’s services and benefits, more particularly to the person or group of persons actually or perceived to be part of the community.

The desk will be established at the Naga City Women’s Center, which is located in the area where the offices of the Naga City Council for Women and Bantay Familia are housed.

“The desk, which will be manned by an employee, is also tasked to liaise with other offices or agencies to make such needed services available to the LGBTQ+ community,” Del Rosario said.

It shall also monitor and assist the barangays in the implementation of mandated official actions as provided in the city’s Anti-SOGIE Discrimination Ordinance” and assist LGBTQ+ clients to efficiently document and report cases of discrimination as defined and prohibited under existing laws and ordinances.