Hot on the heels of her historic win, lesbian boxer Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines dedicated her silver-medal victory to the LGBTQ community.
“I am proud to be part of the LGBTQ community,” says Petecio in a post-match interview. “Go forward, fight! This win is also for you.”
However, during the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum last Tuesday, the boxer told audiences she had reservations about making her pro-LGBTQ statement. “I was worried because I thought about getting bashed or something like that,” she says. “But I am very proud to be part of the LGBTQ community; I’m not denying that.”
The Philippines currently lacks any discrimination protections, leaving LGBTQ folx largely unprotected by the Pacific nation. Transgender individuals in particular are subjected to high rates of violence. Their murders are also often erased from government records, likely making the numbers frighteningly higher than they already are.
An anti-discrimination law known as the SOGIE bill currently sits in the country’s Senate that would attempt to address the hate and dearth of protections for LGBTQ residents, but the bill’s fate is undetermined. It faces pushback from Filipino senators and massive institutions like the nation’s church and military, but queer communities are remaining hopefully that the bill will succeed.
Filipina women have been dominant forces on their nation’s Olympic team this year. Petecio’s win breaks a decades long dry spell for the Philippines boxing team, as she now returns home with the first boxing medal for her country since 1996. Her teammate, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, also made history, setting an Olympic record and taking home the nation’s first-ever gold medal in the 55 kilogram category of women’s weightlifting last week.
Although the win is momentous moment in her career, Petechio says she’s not quite ready to hang up her boxing gloves yet. She’s already got her sights set on the 2024 Paris Olympics. “We’re still chasing the gold,” she says, according to Outsports. “We’re not done.”
