Mandaue City allows employees to wear uniform based on preferred gender

At least 4,000 LGBTQ participate in the the first LGBTQ Pride Parade in Mandaue City in 2018. | CDN file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — There is no stopping Mandaue City Hall employees from expressing their gender preference, even in their office uniforms.

This as the city’s Uniform Committee has allowed employees to choose their uniforms according to the gender that they identify themselves with.

Lawyer John Eddu Ibañez, executive assistant to Mayor Jonas Cortes and chairman of the Uniform Committee, issued a memorandum dated February 10, 2020, directing the city department heads to submit the list of employees assigned to their offices, their gender and sizes.

The memorandum emphasized that employees, who are members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexual and their allies (LGBTQIA+) should not be discriminated in the process.

Read: PRIDE MARCH: Acceptance, not tolerance

Read: LGBTQIA+ groups to show off colors at ‘6014 Pride Parade’ in Mandaue

“LGBTQ+ employees may opt to wear the female or male uniform design depending on their preference,” Ibañez said in the memorandum.

The cost of the uniforms will be taken from the P6,000 uniform allowance of the regular employees. The city government, meanwhile, will shoulder the uniform cost for the job order employees.

Department offices are to submit the uniform details of their employees to the City Treasurer’s Office and the Office of the Mayor on or before Feb. 19.

“The Mandaue City government clarifies that there is no discrimination in its treatment of its employees regardless of the gender that they identify themselves,” the city’s Public Information office (PIO) said in a news release.

Measures to protect the rights of the LGBTQIA+ members in Mandaue City has been laid down since the passage of the city’s  LGBT code in 2016.

The city government of Mandaue has supported anti-gay discrimination measures for years. It was in 2016 when the city adopted the LGBT Code to protect the LGBTQIA+ members against discrimination.

Since 2018, the city hosted an annual Pride March to call for the acceptance of the LGBTQIA+ members in the community.

In 2019, the Pride March dubbed as ‘6014 Pride Parade’ featured LGBTQIA+ groups from around the city and other parts of Cebu. Mandaue’s colorful LGBTQIA+ gatherings has drawn thousands of attendees in the past two years./dbs