 Those providing legal aid services should be trained in the proper methods of conducting interviews with LBT victims of rape, providing support and referrals for psychosocial services. 2. Discrimination and Violence against LBT Persons by State Actors Although the Philippines does not have an anti-sodomy law, the enforcement of some laws by the police have the effect of criminalizing homosexuality and lesbianism. These include the archaic or mundane laws like the prohibition on public scandal and vagrancy or more severe laws like the Anti-Trafficking Law and special provisions in the Revised Penal Code, which create an environment where LBT persons are vulnerable to police abuses. 2a. Discrimination and Abuse by Police (GR 19, Violence Against Women and GR 33, Women’s Access to Justice) Police officers are themselves perpetrators of physical assaults against LBT persons. A lesbian who owed money was abducted, ganged up on, and beaten by a family member and friends, including a police officer, who then illegally detained her at a police station under fabricated charges of drug trafficking. The lesbian’s sister filed a missing person’s report with the chief inspector of the station. In this instance, charges were filed against the perpetrators for unlawful detention and causing serious physical injuries. The police officer’s participation resulted in administrative charges.16 Most cases of police assaults against LBT persons do not result in the police officers being penalized for their actions.17 Most police violence against LBT persons involves illegal detention, where police officers abuse their authority and take advantage of LBT people’s lack of awareness of their rights to carry out unwarranted raids. Most raids on venues frequented by transgender persons or events held by LGBT people are not done in the exercise of rule of law. Instead, police officers, knowing that LBT persons are vulnerable, use the opportunity of conducting raids to extort bribes by blackmail and threatening to disclose LBT persons’ sexual orientation and gender identity to their parents or employers. For closeted LBT individuals, fear of exposure and police harassment often means that they give in to the demands of the police officers and will not report the incidents. Police also collude with parents who object to their daughters having same sex relationships. A report by Rainbow Rights Project, Inc. indicates that on the request of 16 Lesbian abducted and illegally detained in the Precinct. Armida Rico, May 31, 2011. http://www.abantetonite.com/issue/may3111/crime_story02.htm 17 A police officer was charged with physical assault by the lesbian partner of her sister in law after he punched and pointed a gun at the complainant while she was on the ground. Lesbian Accused Police of Assault. 7