Rhelyn Harder
- Borja knew of his identity as gay but was too ashamed of it due to his experience being bullied.
- He fully overcame his struggles and wanted to encourage other LGBT community members to come out.
- Topping the Bar Examination could give him a platform to push for LGBT rights.
An Atenean Law School valedictorian Sean Borja topped the November 2018 Bar Examination among 1,800 candidates and scored 89.3 percent.
“I was shouting out of happiness and my parents came out of the room shouting as well,” said Borja, who waited for the exam results at home.
Being valedictorian of his class, many have set high expectations to top the exam. With the result he received as a topnotcher, he could now release the pressure he once felt.
“I guess when you’re valedictorian; a lot of expectations come out. So a lot of the faculty told me after graduation, ‘Hey top the bar ha,” he said.
“There was definitely that pressure going into the Bar exams. But I just thought, ‘Hey you know, I guess I don’t owe anybody anything anyway.’ If I were to top the bar, it has to be something that I wanted for myself as well.”
In his elementary school days, Borja knew of his identity as gay but was too ashamed of it due to his experience being bullied. But he fully overcame his struggles and wanted to encourage other LGBT community members to come out. Topping the Bar Examination could give him a platform to push for LGBT rights.
“Other than the mundane, I think what I would really want to show is to keep pushing my limits to show that people like me, people from my community can achieve so much if people will just listen and look out for us,” Borja told ANC.
One of his Facebook post in November 2017, he had stated how LGBT have been discriminated and they could not become somebody else but as an entertainer.
“For a long time, I was made to believe that members of the LGBT community could never be anything beyond mere providers of entertainment. The moment we come out, we will never make CEO, President, or Senior Partner. After all, society itself has charted our destiny to become marginalized, second-class citizens,” Borja said.
“Eh bakla ka eh, so hanggang parlorista ka lang. O di kaya talk show hosts. So don’t ever make the mistake of telling anybody about who you are. Don’t come out. Fake it.”
Borja even said to ANC that “There were a lot of times I doubted myself… I did overcome those doubts, those insecurities. I’m just happy to be myself.”
Borja ended up in law school when he initially had a “quarter-life crisis” and could not make up his mind about pursuing law studies.
“I figured out I was really bad in business so I thought law might be the way for me,” he said.
As a new lawyer who had topped the bar exam, he wanted to “provide a voice for people who don’t necessarily have that. In the sense that not everybody might have the courage to speak up what their rights are or what they want.”
https://twitter.com/dyordspablo/status/1124627992670375936
"(I'd like to) provide a VOICE for people who don’t necessarily have that. In the sense that not everybody might have THE COURAGE to speak up what their RIGHTS are or what they want.” – Sean James Borja, Top notcher of 2018 Bar Exam.
BAKLA and proud!!! Ikaw ano achievement mo???
— VHON (@vhonafide) May 5, 2019
https://twitter.com/franzzccy/status/1124307618745307136
https://twitter.com/iamethanrufino/status/1125265623322218497
https://twitter.com/therealaljon/status/1124324754482089984
https://twitter.com/fhlmrc_bgrn/status/1124287788851974147
The LGBT Community was happy as they congratulate him for his success.
