True Self
Ang Ladlad's Bemz Benedito
By ANGELO GARCIA, RONALD S. LIM, and JASER A. MARASIGAN
June 23, 2012, 1:38pm

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/363170/true-self

As a transgender woman, Bemz Benedito finds it frustrating to explain her gender to anyone who cares to ask, to say that she was born in the wrong body, to express that in her heart, she always knew that she was a girl. But, however eloquently she explains all these, Bemz usually gets furrowed brows and blank stares in return.

"Nakikita mo talaga na when you try to explain, ang tagal mag sink in ang aming pinapaliwanag about transgender people. I don't know if we're making sense or naabsorb ba na there is such a thing as a transgender (TG) community. Siguro it's their first time to hear the term, you cannot also blame them," Bemz laments.

Now at 33 years old, Bemz projects herself as a woman, from her long hair to the way she dresses, to the way she speaks. Wearing a bright pink blazer over a black and white striped dress during this interview, she explains that she is not a cross-dressing man but a woman with her own rights.