For All Women and Girls: Martha de la Paz on helping trans women take their seat at the table
Date:
#ForAllWomenAndGirls is a rallying call for action on the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA). Martha de la Paz, a trans woman, public health professional, and advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and other (LGBTIQ+) rights, discusses her work to ensure access to HIV services, inclusive healthcare, and decision-making for her community.
Ensuring equitable access to healthcare
“I am an out and proud trans woman,” proclaims de la Paz. She describes coming out as a gay boy in high school but later claimed her womanhood after learning what it meant to be trans in college.
She credits her access to education and employment, along with support from her family and friends, for helping her express her authentic self and pursue a career in public health. “As a trans woman, everything I do gravitates toward advocating for LGBTIQ+ health – it’s deeply personal to me. I’ve always felt this fire in my belly about it.”
De la Paz started her career at the Philippine Department of Health, where colleagues made her feel comfortable and included, providing her with a supportive environment by allowing her to use the women’s restroom and using her lived name and pronouns. Since working at UNAIDS, however, she says she feels more fulfilled because she’s ensuring access to HIV services for the trans community.
Action to ensure legal protection is still an urgent need
Fighting for policies to ensure gender equality and LGBTIQ+ rights keeps her motivated. Despite LGBTIQ+ activism since the 1980s in the Philippines, de la Paz says the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Expression and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) Equality Bill has still not passed.
“Despite the Philippines being relatively tolerant toward the LGBTIQ+ community, our real battle is at the policy level,” she says, adding: “We’re still not protected from stigma and discrimination. Without the SOGIESC Bill, we remain vulnerable.
Trans people still face microaggressions and hatred. “Every day I see messages online calling trans people being unnatural and immoral, the public bashing and misgendering us. There are still many people who harbour deep hatred toward our community. In my everyday experiences, I feel a degree of anxiety – that I will encounter people who’ll refuse to use my lived name and pronouns, who won’t recognize me as a woman. Our community also continues to face violence, sometimes resulting in deaths. At the end of the day, we’re still fighting a hostile society built on stigma and discrimination,” she laments.
Taking a seat at the table
As the Services for All Implementation Adviser at UNAIDS, de la Paz works on HIV prevention, treatment and advocacy. She’s currently working with the Department of Health to improve SOGIESC data collection in surveillance systems and generally ensuring that trans people are represented in decision-making spaces.
“A big part of my work is advocating for policy development and recalibration with the government to continually improve HIV services in the country. Whenever I meet with my government counterparts, I make sure that our lived experiences are considered in national policies and guidelines – that interventions are tailor-fitted to our needs. I also ensure other trans people are with me. Even though I’m already here, I recognize that one voice isn't enough—we need multiple trans people influencing the HIV response and the health sector at every level.”
As the world marks the 30th anniversary of the BPfA, de la Paz reflects on the path forward. “We have a saying in Filipino: ‘malayo na pero malayo pa’ – we’ve come far, but we still have a long way to go,” she says. “Decades of advocacy have allowed me to live authentically. But we still have tremendous work ahead. The SOGIESC Equality Bill must be passed, marriage equality needs to be recognized, and we need institutionalized support for transgender health and social services.”
She urges trans people to channel their solidarity to collectively amplify their voices and claim space: “Use your voice. Use your experience. Tell the world we are here, we are fighting, and we need equal rights – access to education, employment, healthcare, and social services. It all starts with claiming your space and taking your seat at the table.”