Not only do these restrictions have zero educational value, they can be extremely damaging for LGBT students’ mental health and ability to learn.

Students who do not conform to these requirements are often subject to harsh disciplinary action from teachers and administrators, including being refused entry to school grounds, kicked out of class, suspended from school, or publicly reprimanded and shamed. Alarmingly, several students we interviewed reported extended school absences, transferring schools, or dropping out entirely to avoid conflicts with teachers and administrators hostile to LGBT and non-gender conforming students.

Human Rights Watch also found that even when students are formally permitted to wear the uniforms of their choice by administrators, school personnel can still harass or humiliate them in practice.

This kind of discrimination infringes upon students’ rights to education and freedom of expression and contravenes both domestic and international law – including the Philippine Constitution and Child Protection Policy, and treaties the Philippines has ratified, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.