BALANGA CITY – Bataan 1st district Representative Geraldine B. Roman was honored under the “Challengers” category of the US-based Foreign Policy magazine.
Roman is included in this year’s leading 100 Global Thinkers, recognizing her as a “challenger” who showed “agitation takes myriad forms,” and as someone who is “redefining the fitness to govern.”
She was cited for pioneering feat as the first transgender politician, in a country that has banned sex change and has seen transgenders become victims of homicide.
“Hailing from a political family – her parents previously held the congressional seat she won – Roman isn’t shy about her identity,” Foreign Policy wrote, quoting a BBC interview in which she said “gender only becomes an issue when you try to keep it a secret,” Rappler.com stated.
Roman along with Senator Leila De Lima were included under the “Challengers” category, which also included:
•Geraldine Blin, project director of the French Penitentiary Administration, France
•Feyisa Lilesa, Olympic runner, Ethiopia
•Collete Devlin, Diana King, and Kitty O’Kane, activists, UK
•Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bak and Barbara Nowacka, politicians, Poland
•Edit Schlaffer, founder, Women Without Borders, Austria
•Alexander Betts and Paul Collier, professors, UK
•Nathan Law, lawmaker, Hong Kong
•Haifa al-Hababi, architect, Saudi Arabia
•US Ambassador James Brewster and activist Deivis Ventura
•Jesse Morton, researcher, US
•Evan Mawarire, pastor, Zimbabwe.
Foreign Policy’s 100 list also includes big global names such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; former US secretary of state Hilary Clinton; Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan; outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; London Mayor Sadiq Khan; and Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.
Roman said through her Facebook post this is the second list where she and Hillary Clinton are “both recognized by international publications (Time Motto and Foreign Policy) for their efforts to shatter glass ceilings.” — Mhike R. Cigaral