Stances and compromises

“Roman defended the trade-offs, saying ‘politics is compromise,’ taking it from Bismarck who also once said: ‘A government (or a leader) must not waiver once it has chosen its course. It must not go to the left or right, but go forward.’”

VANCOUVER, BC, Canada– Geraldine Roman channeled Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck and more popularly known as Otto Von Bismarck, when she emphasized ‘politics is compromise’ in explaining her stance on same-sex marriage and civil partnerships.

Roman, the Bataan representative and the first openly transgender woman lawmaker in the Philippines, recently drew flak for what the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community sees as her weak stand on same-sex marriage. She said it would be easier to convince her colleagues in the House to pass a law on civil partnerships instead.

For the LGBT, Roman could have been the community’s best hope to push further its advocacies. But she was a spoiler to its celebration of the Pride Month.

The community was disappointed of Roman’s compromises when she defended what she thinks is natural to Philippines politics, making her no different from the traditional politicians who would agree to compromises than take a strong stand on issues favorable to their constituents’ interests.

Roman defended the trade-offs, saying “politics is compromise,” taking it from Bismarck who also once said: “A government (or a leader) must not waiver once it has chosen its course. It must not go to the left or right, but go forward.”

Roman said: “To say that the Philippines and Congress are already ready for same-sex marriage would simply be dishonest,” perhaps unaware that at least a couple of Christian churches in Quezon City and in Baguio have been administering same-sex marriage for at least a couple of years now since several countries have made same-sex marriage legal and binding.

For Roman, however, it is not yet the time for same-sex marriage to gain enough support from the House.

“Should we fight for something that will never win at this point? Or should we lobby for something that will give us practically the same rights and obligations and that has more certainty of being passed into law?” she said. “A dose of realism will definitely guide us in choosing the right path.”

She said civil partnerships under House Bill 6595 – pending at the level of the women and gender equality committee – would grant “practically the same rights and obligations as any legally-recognized relationship,” like opposite-sex marriages as she dropped hints she would not take a radical approach to ramming the issue right into her colleagues’ throats when many in the LGBT are calling for it.

I never heard Roman promise support to same-sex marriage when she was campaigning. Or, if she did, we could turn to Bismarck, too, for exposing “people (most especially politicians) who never lie so much as after the hunt, during a war or before an election.”

And if Roman really believes in Bismarck’s “politics is compromise,” she should also look at him as having once said: “politics is not an exact science.”

So she could perhaps level up her support to the LGBT community by rocking the boat. But will she?

Roman does not have to look far to know where it came from.