Born a man grew up a woman

Yam Luzon, is openly accepted by her parents, Bendi and Weena Luzon, being transgender woman and a part of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) community in Cebu.

Yam, eldest of her siblings, became the bread winner of her family as she works as a call center agent to provide food, shelter and other financial needs for her parents who already stopped working. Her father worked as a jeepney driver on the side. Although her parents has long accepted her gender preferences, her father still advises her to avoid having a boyfriend since he fears he would only use her for money.

Yam was a Computer Engineer scholar in the University of Cebu. On her 4th year in college, she met a bisexual individual who taught her how to become a woman. They decided to live-in together but she was left with nothing, saved nothing for herself financially and was unable to finish her degree. Her father found out about her situation and forced her to cut the relationship. Eventually, she got back on track and started helping out her family through her career, building their own humble home. She is now a team leader in a call center company. She is also a freelance model. She has also experienced discrimination in the modeling industry because of her gender, since she was often mistaken to be a woman by model handlers. This has also caused her to be a victim of bullying. Yam hopes to inspire trans models to be more confident with their sexuality

Yam also expressed her stand that she is against same-sex marriage in respect for the Catholic Church and the value of marriage being for man and woman alone. However, she is advocating for civil union or partnership rights to be a law in the Philippines. She stated that, “We all need someone to love and to feel loved as well. There should be rights for LGBT couples for their SSS benefits, policies in insurances and the like.”
June is the LGBT month or the Pride month were the community held a series of activities to show that they are a part of the society.