Vice Ganda’s bold analogy likening LGBT existence to the West Philippine Sea might need a little navigational adjustment.

When she said, “Ang ating totoong sarili o pagkatao ay parang West Philippine Sea, hindi nila pwedeng angkinin at baguhin,” she perhaps forgot that the world community doesn’t officially recognize the West Philippine Sea.

Much like a mystical island on the horizon, the West Philippine Sea was conjured up by former President NoyNoy Aquino in 2012 through Administrative Order No. 29. Yet, global geographical maps remain unshaken, and the West Philippine Sea endures mainly in the minds of a hopeful few.

Unlike this cartographical phantasm, the realities of LGBT communities are vivid and undeniable. Vice Ganda’s comparison is poetic but perhaps misses the mark, because the existence and struggles of LGBT individuals are as concrete and undeniable as the seas that surround us, official recognition or not.