6 - Malayang Paglaladlad para sa Mapagpalayang Paglalahad: Coming Out and Queering Science Communication in Contested Spaces

Summary

Introduction

Many LGBTIQA+ individuals struggle with pervasive discrimination, prejudice, and stigmatization, detrimentally affecting their physical and mental health (Clark, 2014). Although science communication can present these concerns, and even encourage action, it may be limited by its scientific focus, which sidelines queer voices and objectifies queer individuals (Roberson and Orthia, 2021). This exemplifies the urgent need for queering science communication theory and practice, challenging traditional cis-heteronormative visions, and including diverse voices for genuine social transformation (Rumens et al, 2018). Furthermore, diverse modalities of queer science communication are needed, especially in contested spaces where queer bodies and identities are constantly being questioned, discriminated against, and marginalized; and where Western views of queering science communication may not fully acknowledge local culture, history, and socioeconomic condition. In this chapter, we use the Philippines as a lens to explore queering science communication in a non-Western space where the queer and the colonized remain subjugated and dispossessed by social, economic, and cultural conditions.

We first illustrate how the Philippines is a contesting space for queer identities and then reflect on opportunities and barriers for queering science communication in the country. In order to explore challenges in coming out as a queer Filipino scientist/science communicator and their implications for communicating science that impacts queer people, we employ collective autoethnography. We draw upon and jointly reflect on our lived experiences (Chang et al, 2013), illustrating these challenges as ‘subjective eyewitnesses’ and ‘experienced knowers’ with discourses of authenticity and suffering (Jasanoff, 2017). We conclude by laying the groundwork for what queering science communication entails and how it can promote free expression and societal equity in vulnerating spaces for the LGBTIQA+ community.

The Philippines: a contested space for queer identities

The Philippines is an archipelagic Southeast Asian nation composed of diverse indigenous and ethnolinguistic groups. It has endured Spanish colonial rule for 300 years and the US for half a century (Tan, 2001). Prior to colonial subjugation, effeminacy, cross-dressing, and gender-transitive behaviours were observed in the indigenous culture (Garcia, 2013; UNDP and USAID, 2014), epitomized by the babaylans or bayogs.