Filipinos whose gender identity differs from what appears on their birth records would no longer need a court order to update their legal name and gender marker, under a measure now pending before the House of Representatives.
The proposal, House Bill 9929 or the Lived Identities Recognition Act (LIRA), sets up an administrative path for name changes and gender recognition that supporters say would spare transgender and intersex Filipinos the cost and delay of litigation. It was e-filed on June 23, 2026, during the First Regular Session of the 20th Congress.
Akbayan Rep. Perci Cendaña led the filing, joined by fellow party-list representatives Chel Diokno and Dadah Kiram Ismula, along with Dinagat Islands Rep. Kaka Bag-ao. The measure has picked up a nickname among supporters — the “Sharmaine Bill” — drawn from an internet moment that Cendaña used to make his case for the legislation.
“Kung gets natin agad na Sharmaine ang gustong pangalan ng isang orange sa Tiktok, kayang-kaya rin natin i-extend ang ganitong pag-unawa sa mga trans at intersex nating kapatid. Deserve nilang kilalanin ng batas sa pangalang nakasanayan nila at sa kung sino talaga sila,” Cendaña said.
Under the bill’s declaration of policy, the state would affirm a person’s “lived identity” as an inherent part of personhood and a fundamental right, citing the dignity and equal-protection guarantees of the 1987 Constitution. The text frames legal recognition as something that should be reachable without burdensome medical or judicial requirements, and calls for existing rules on civil registration, family rights, and government records to be brought in line with that principle.
The bill spells out definitions for terms including gender identity, non-binary, intersex, and gender self-determination, the last of which it describes as the right of a person to define and express their gender free from coercion, discrimination, or arbitrary interference. It also defines “lived identity” as a chosen name and gender marker rooted in a person’s self-determined gender identity — how individuals understand and present their gender across daily life, social roles, and cultural settings.
Privacy protections form part of the package as well. The measure states that sensitive personal information held in both public and private records would be safeguarded, extending the right to privacy and privileged communications to data tied to a person’s identity.
The explanatory note grounds the proposal in international human rights standards, pointing to the Yogyakarta Principles and quoting their statement that “each person’s self-defined sexual orientation and gender identity is integral to their personality and is one of the most basic aspects of self-determination, dignity, and freedom.”
The authors argue that without legal recognition, people of diverse sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and sex characteristics face discrimination in jobs, healthcare, and schools, and are left more exposed to violence and psychological harm.
The filing arrives against a longer record of stalled legislation on gender recognition in the Philippines. The explanatory note observes that the United Nations Human Rights Committee has, since 2022, pressed the Philippine government to put legal gender recognition procedures in place, and it references the Supreme Court’s ruling in Silverio v. Republic, where the court held that the country’s laws had not kept pace with medical and scientific understanding of gender identity.
