SOGIE Bill: What You Need to Know as Employers and Employees

When conversations about the SOGIE Bill come up, they’re often framed around politics or identity. But for today’s forward-thinking business leaders, the real question is this: What kind of workplace are you trying to build?

If you’re hiring in the Philippines, especially in remote or hybrid teams, you’re hiring across lines of gender expression, sexual orientation, and identity, whether you realize it or not. The proposed SOGIE Equality Bill, often misunderstood as niche legislation for LGBTQIA+ Filipinos, is in fact about safeguarding the basic dignity of all employees. For hiring managers, it’s not just a legal concept. It’s a signal of how you manage inclusion, equity, and fairness in your workplace.

What Is SOGIE and Why Should Employers Care?

SOGIE stands for:

• Sexual Orientation (who a person is attracted to)
  
• Gender Identity (how a person sees themselves)
  
• Gender Expression (how a person presents themselves)
  

Every person, regardless of gender or orientation, has a SOGIE. And that’s the point. The SOGIE Equality Bill protects against discrimination based on these factors, which can happen to anyone, including heterosexual, cisgender individuals.

This means:

• A straight male employee passed over for promotion due to perceived effeminacy would be protected.
  
• A cisgender woman penalized for dressing outside gender norms would be protected.
  
• An LGBTQIA+ applicant rejected for a role purely due to identity, despite qualifications, would be protected.
  

Why it matters:
Inclusive policies help ensure that decisions in recruitment, performance evaluation, and promotions are made based on merit, not bias.

The Talent Advantage: How Inclusive Teams Perform Better

Companies that prioritize diversity and inclusion aren’t just checking a box—they’re outperforming their competitors. McKinsey reports consistently show that inclusive organizations experience:

• Higher employee retention
  
• Greater innovation
  
• Improved team performance
  

For global and remote teams, where collaboration across cultures, backgrounds, and communication styles is the norm. Psychological safety is non-negotiable. When employees feel they can bring their full selves to work, they collaborate more openly, take more initiative, and stay longer.

Addressing Common Misconceptions: SOGIE Is Not Just for LGBTQIA+

One of the biggest blockers to passing the SOGIE Equality Bill is the misconception that it exists solely for LGBTQIA+ protections. While the LGBTQIA+ community disproportionately faces discrimination, the bill itself is universal in scope.

This broader applicability is often under-communicated in mainstream narratives, leaving employers unaware of how it could protect their own hiring and retention strategies.

Workplace Culture Is a Business Lever Not a Compliance Burden

Some employers resist legislation like the SOGIE Bill out of fear that it will add to regulatory burdens. But that view misses the bigger opportunity: a workplace that champions fairness and inclusion is a competitive advantage.

A modern employer doesn’t wait for laws to set the tone—they create proactive policies that:

• Ensure fair hiring processes
  
• Educate managers on unconscious bias
  
• Provide safe reporting mechanisms for harassment or discrimination
  
• Use inclusive language in job descriptions, onboarding materials, and internal communications
  

These aren’t just DEI “nice-to-haves”. They’re strategies for resilience and growth in today’s competitive talent market.

Legal or Not, You Can Lead Now

Even as the SOGIE Equality Bill stalls in Congress, employers don’t need to wait for its passage to act. In fact, leading employers are already using SOGIE principles to:

• Build inclusive employee handbooks
  
• Provide SOGIE sensitivity training to hiring managers
  
• Update harassment policies to cover gender expression and identity
  
• Foster internal ERGs (Employee Resource Groups) for underrepresented staff
  

Leadership today means anticipating, not reacting to social change.

Final Thoughts: Build the Team You Want to Work In

Whether or not the SOGIE Equality Bill becomes law in the near future, its principles reflect a growing expectation: that workplaces protect the dignity of every individual, regardless of gender or identity.

For Filipino employers and those hiring remote teams from the Philippines, embracing these values is not just the ethical path. It’s the smart one.

It tells your current and future employees: We see you. We value you. And you belong here.

See how Devy’s story of growth through inclusion helped clients grow: 

Want to future-proof your hiring practices?

Start with a SOGIE-inclusive audit of your policies, language, and team culture. A stronger, more inclusive workforce starts with one decision: lead by example. You can also reach out to our HR experts who advocate fair hiring practices.