From Deviant toBakla, Strong to Stronger: Mainstreaming Sexual and Gender Minorities into Disaster Risk Reduction in the Philippines

Abstract

Disaster risk reduction (DRR), and indeed development at large, has traditionally been reluctant to acknowledge and accept the issue of gendered and sexual diversity in its mainstream policy design and practice. Recent forays into mainstreaming gender and sexual minorities into DRR have, however, highlighted the crucial role that these minorities play in bigger development aspirations of participation and empowerment. This debate article explores the notion of ‘queering development’ in DRR, and by drawing upon a recent DRR project in a rural area of the Philippines that is at high risk of natural hazards, we suggest a new framework for conceptualizing and ‘doing’ DRR.