Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights in the Philippines have expanded in the 21st century, although LGBTQ+ individuals faced many difficulties in their homeland, such as prejudice, violence, abuse, assault, harassment and other forms of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. Many LGBTQ Filipinos are met with mixed attitudes and reactions by their families, friends and others in their communities, as well as professionals, educators, their national public officials, politicians, attorneys and others working for the government and the rest of the general population.

Many individuals, groups and communities in the Philippines have helped LGBTQ Filipinos in need with LGBTQ-friendly counseling services and therapy sessions to help them escape dangerous and hostile environments.

Filipino LGBTQ individuals and groups, their communities, and LGBTQ allies have worked to promote and encourage social and political justice on a national level. They have engaged in social activism and advocacy based on human rights to pass pro-LGBTQ legislation on a national scale. LGBTQ Filipinos also have a higher rate of either developing suicidal ideation or attempting suicide.Suicide Ideation and Suicide Attempt Among Young Lesbian and Bisexual Filipina Women:Evidence for Disparities in the Philippines by Eric Julian Manalastas

Many equality bills for LGBTQ rights have been proposed since the 2000s, including the anti-discriminatory Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Expression (SOGIE) Equality Bill. Despite failing to pass in the national government, many anti-discrimination ordinances on sexual orientation and gender identity exist in local administrative units in the Philippines, including the country's capital, Manila.

Meanwhile, an anti-bullying law includes sexual orientation and gender identity as some of its prohibited grounds.

In 2022, two civil union bills have been refiled and proposed by certain groups of public officials, politicians, lawmakers, lawyers, attorneys and others in the Philippine Congress which seeks to recognize, provide benefits and protection for same-sex couples in the Philippines.

As a member of the United Nations, the Philippines is being encouraged by various signatory international covenants to promote all forms of internationally based universal and fundamental human rights which includes promoting LGBTQ rights.UNDP, USAID. Being LGBT in Asia: the Philippines Country Report. (Bangkok: USAID, 2014)

Alongside these developments, LGBTQ movements in the Philippines have been very active and gained some political representation.

History Prior to the Spanish occupation, non-labeled transgender women or feminine men usually (but not always) became babaylan, which are traditionally non-cis-women. Journal entries of Spanish colonizers describe "men who lived as women, and seen as women in the society" in reference to shamans of the animistic-polytheistic indigenous Philippine folk religions. They functioned as healers, mediators, and highly respected spiritual leaders of the communities on par with the ruling nobility. These shamans, however, were persecuted during the conversion of most Philippine ethnic groups into Christianity and Islam, resulting in the discrimination faced by the LGBTQ community in the present-day.

Precolonial period

Priestesses, or babaylan, held positions of authority as religious leaders or healers in some precolonial Philippine societies. Cross-dressing males sometimes took on the role of the female babaylan.

The babaylan, also called katalonan, bayoguin, bayok, agi-ngin, asog, bido and binabae depending on the ethnic group of the region, held important positions in the community. They were the spiritual leaders of the Filipino communities, tasked with responsibilities pertaining to rituals, agriculture, science, medicine, literature and other forms of knowledge that the community needed. In the absence of a datu, the babaylan could take charge of the whole community.

The role of the babaylan was mostly associated with women, but male babaylans also existed. Early historical accounts record the existence of male babaylans who wore feminine clothes and took the demeanor of a woman. Anatomy was not the only basis for gender. Being male or female was based primarily on occupation, appearance, actions and sexuality. A male babaylan could partake in romantic and sexual relations with other men without being judged by society.

Precolonial society accepted gender-crossing and transvestism as part of their culture. Rituals and trances performed by the babaylan mirrored the reunification of the opposites, the male and female. They believed that by doing this they would be able to exhibit spiritual potency, which would be used for healing spiritual brokenness. Outside this task, male babaylans sometimes indulged in homosexual relations. Additionally, many stories from indigenous oral literature exemplified the representation of LGBTQ characters through deities and the like.

During the Islamization of southwest Mindanao, barangays and states influenced by Islam expelled the belief of homosexual acceptance, resulting to discrimination of queer people despite the social participation and contribution of queer folks in their fields of expertise. Nevertheless, states and barangays that were not Islamized continued to practice acceptance on homosexuality and gender-bending cultures and belief systems.

Spanish colonial period

The Spanish conquistadors introduced a predominantly patriarchal culture to the precolonial Philippines. Men were expected to demonstrate masculinity in their society, alluding to the Spanish machismo or a strong sense of being a man. Confession manuals made by the Spanish friars during this period suspected that the natives were guilty of sodomy and homosexual acts. During the 17th–18th century Spanish Inquisition period, Spanish administrators burned people accused of being sodomites to enforce the decree made by Pedro Hurtado Desquibel, President of Audiencia.

Datus were appointed as the district officers of the Spaniards while the babaylan were reduced to relieving the worries of the natives. The removal of the datu system of localized governance affected babaylanship. The babaylans eventually dwindled with the colonization of the Spaniards. Issues about sexual orientation and gender identity were not widely discussed after the Spanish colonization.

Throughout the Spanish colonial period, numerous accounts of babaylan who defied Spanish colonial rule were recorded. The most prominent three of which are those of a Hiligaynon babaylan named Tapara, a Cebuano babaylan named Ponciano Elofre, and another Hiligaynon babaylan named Gregorio Lampino. A 1663 account of a fray named Juan Fernandez noted that a male babaylan named Tapara or Tapar from Lambunao, Iloilo led a revolt against the Spanish. Tapara was described as a "mystic who dressed and acted like a woman". The late 19th century had two prominent babaylans who led revolutions against Spain. The first is the skirt-wearing and allegedly bisexual (silahis) Ponciano Elofre. The other male babaylan was Gregorio Lampino. The era also brought about Leona Florentino, the country's foundational feminist poet and dramatist, known as the mother of Philippine women's literature and the pioneer in Philippine lesbian literature.Blanton, S. (2016). A Threshold of Flowers: Public and Private Eroticism in the Poems of Leona Florentino. University of North Carolina.Mabanglo, R. E. (2020). Leona Florentino: Mother of Filipina poetry. Philippine Graphic.Writing Lesbian, Lesbian writing (Cruz, Jhoanna Lynn, Bulatlat News), 2005.

American colonial period Four decades of American occupation saw the promulgation and regulation of sexuality through a modernized mass media and a standardized academic learning. Furthered by the growing influence of Western biomedicine, it conceived a specific sexological consciousness in which the "homosexual" was perceived and discriminated as a pathological or sick identity. Filipino homosexuals eventually identified to this oppressive identity and began engaging in projects of inversion, as the disparity of homo and hetero entrenched and became increasingly salient in the people's psychosexual logic.Martin, Fran (2008). AsiaPacifiQueer: Rethinking Genders and Sexualities. Illinois: University of Illinois Press.

Though American colonialism brought the Western notion of "gay" and all its discontents, it also simultaneously refunctioned to serve liberationist ends. While it stigmatized the local homosexual identity, the same colonialism made available a discussion and thus a discursive position which enabled the homosexualized bakla to speak. It was during the neocolonial period in the 1960s that a conceptual history of Philippine gay culture began to take form, wherein a "subcultural lingo of urban gay men that uses elements from Tagalog, English, Spanish and Japanese, as well as celebrities' names and trademark brands" developed, often referred to as swardspeak, gayspeak or baklese.Ricordeau, G. au/issue19/ricordeau_review.htm. "Review of "Philippine Gay Culture: Binabae to Bakla, Silahis to MSM"". Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific. Retrieved November 10, 2015. Gay literature that was Philippine-centric also began to emerge during this period.Garcia, J. Neil C. (2008). Philippine Gay Culture: Binabae to Bakla, Silahis to MSM. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press. Further developments in gay literature and academic learning saw the first demonstrations by LGBTQ political activists, particularly LGBTQ-specific pride marches.UNDP, USAID (2014). Being LGBT in Asia: The Philippines Country Report. Bangkok. A known LGBTQ figure from this era (who only became much known after the 1990s) was Crispulo Trinidad Luna (1903–1970), also known as Pulong.

During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines (1942 to 1945), several Filipino LGBTQ people were forced into sexual slavery as comfort women, including several male minors. The story of Walterina Markova was told in a 2000 movie entitled Markova: Comfort Gay. He died in 2005 without any compensation from the Japanese Government, like the majority of Filipina comfort women.

1960s to 1980s Swardspeak, a form a slang used by homosexuals, emerged in the 1960s. This era also saw singer and performer Helen Cruz, a pioneering transgender activist.UNDP, USAID (2014). Being LGBT in Asia: The Philippines Country Report. Bangkok. p. 16. During the same time, and likely much earlier, Ukà of Lange-Lange, a transgender animist woman among the Teduray people, was recorded as being the most prominent musician in Mindanao, specializing in the kutiyapi, the most difficult and demanding of all indigenous Philippine musical instruments.Schlegel, S. A. (2003). Wisdom from a Rainforest: The Spiritual Journey of an Anthropologist. University of Georgia Press.