amen!

mabuhay ka hillary! looking forward for the US to become more open minded like Canada in accepting the LGBT community rather than simply being tolerant

The first hurdle that the community has to get through is coming together to show a united front.

Gay men to this day, though not all, still have biases and are still discriminating of each other (Most notable would be the butch, or some would call it straight-acting, against the effeminates and vice versa).

Discrimination is so ingrained in us that it is so hard to accept for fear that people will see them as “guilty” by association (guilty of what, I have no clue).

Accept people in the community for who they are, for whatever reason is the first step.

Real life experience.
I was drinking with a couple of gay guys I just met the other day and they saw a couple of effeminate looking gay men walk buy. Suddenly one of them blurted out “What a bunch of faggots.” I stood up and walked away. It was too much.

Kung sakali “sa impyerno ang bagsak ng mga bakla” mas masaya. At least, doon we can all be HAPPY and GAY!

Araw-araw doon party!

I agree with the overall sentiment. In this day and age there has a to be a revamp of how people accept people.

Personally, I still think the H. Clinton quote (while encouraging on a general aspect) is still skirting the main issues of LGBT acceptance. It is, i feel, a very safe statement to make considering that explicitly mentioning and supporting key points such as gay lifestyles, representation, and gay rights is still believed by these politicians to be somewhat detrimental to their portfolio with regards to the general voting public. For once, I’d like a candidate to actually have the balls to really come out and support this very vital section of society which has been marginalized for so long.

Do you have ideas what we can do to practice this acceptance in our daily life? Do share your thoughts here.
— Don’t be scared to live out your life openly. That’s what they want you to do. Increase gay visibility in all integral aspects of society. Don’t be boxed in with stereotypes that limit your potential to be of service both to yourselves and others. Make everyone realize the power of the so-called pink peso. And lastly, accept yourselves and never ever be ashamed or think that you should relegated as second-class citizens. Chin up lagi kumbaga.

the personality of a person is more important than his sexuality.

Hi Migs,

Well I think this problem will have no end. But I believe, it can be minimized.

I’ve read the comments of some of your articles on how to be a better “gay” or “closet” person. I just hope that even a person is openly gay or not, do something good to yourselves. Like what Ricky Reyes have done. Yes, everyone had the prerogative to choose how will they act or portry themselves to the public as if “wala akong pakialam sa sasabihin ng iba”, but I think if what you do is just sway your hips, speak so loud without modesty, shout or tell boys “pahada naman”, who do you think will respect gay people

I also believe that we are gifted people even though we are not within the range of what suppose to be a norm. We are intelligent , creative, sensible persons, so why not use these talents in a way that a lot of people will benefit. I think if the society will see that all gay people are good persons and successful in their endeavor, Im pretty sure everybody will prefer to be gay. Don’t you think so.

I bit unrelated to the topic, but I also hope we gay people stop saying “magpakatotoo ka, lumantad ka na”. I think we don’t have the right to dictate to someone what should be done with their life. Respect each and everyone, that way, we will all live in a very harmonious society.

Peace to every body. Batu-batu sa langit tamaan huwag pong magagalit.

impyerno? anu yon? ’nuff said, amen.

im routing for her to win!!!
go Hillary!!

basta bet ko si hillary to be the next US president. mabuhay ang kababaihan! haha…

nice sentiment but she is a politician, so she will say anything to get elected.

I have thought of this topic earlier today and coincidentally you posted a blog similar to what I have in mind. I’ve been thinking that diversity is still unaccepted because there is lack of understanding, knowledge and ignorance is taking over a society. I live now in the US and being gay and Asian, I can’t deny that there is prejudice. Of course the majority of the population here is white and certainly there is discrimination. Because they can’t accept diversity. Because they don’t know what it’s like to be asian, black, latino or a homosexual. And a full understanding only comes if there’s basic information and teaching to accept diversity. Hillary won me over when she mentioned about Acceptance and because of that, I’m with Hillary for President!

hillary clinton will do everything to get that democratic nomination…she’s going to court the gay community , shed a tear, lambast her opponents, put up smear ads and gives the public her winsome smile but the public is more discerning now hence she was badly beaten by obama in the South Carolina primary.

Most if not all gays will prefer a democrat over a republican because of the former’s more liberal stand and support for the gay community and this is why clinton is exploiting it. I am not sold out also of the don’t ask dont tell policy of her husband concerning the gays in the military… it must be repealed!!!

Anyway, I would like to share an amusing quote from either BArrack Obama or Hillary Clinton (i’m not sure) when they were asked why should the gays be allowed to participate in combat especially in Iraq:

“You don’t have to be straight to shoot straight!”

Acceptance and respect for gays is very difficult to achieve especially in our country not just because of our religion but more of the lifestyle and the lack of decorum (or absence of it) that has been shown by most of the gays (Loud) in the community. Can we not just be gay and still maintain a respectable life? I dont think that being open is equivalent to being unruly, loud and disrespectful.

This is the same reason why it is so hard for gays who are educated, professional and family oriented to be open because they dont want to be associated with those kind of people. I dont want to be associated with those kind of people.

just my thoughts, peace!

@jt > idol na kita

Is it a show of sympathy for members of the so-called Third Sex, or, is it her way of reaching out to the gays and lesbians whose precious support she feels she also needs now that she eyeing the presidency? I do not buy anything that drops from the lips of a politician, especially a traditional one, for a politician’s remarks during the campaign period are but part of the election campaign routine and after the political exercises, he or she begings forgetting and even ignoring those same people on whom and whose problems he or she focused when hypocritically courting and enlisting their support.

Respect begets respect. But we know there are people who refuse to respect and do not know how to show respect for others. These people need to be reeducated. What’s more surprising, though, is there are members of the Third Sex, the effeminate and the transvestites or the bakla men, who are
ignorant when it comes to respecting the choices, preferences, and lifestyles of the straight-acting, straight-talking, straight-looking, straight-feeling, straight-thinking gay men, whom they consider as their equals, as very much like them. But that is not really the case.

Gay does not mean one has to be effeminate or be bakla or sissy, does not mean one has to wear women’s clothing, to use make up,
to sway hips. Gay does not mean one has to openly tell anyone about his gender preference. A gay man can be discreet about anything he does and gets into, and that is cool with me.

Gay is not bakla and bakla is not gay,
but, in the Philippines, the two are interchangeable, and this is very
unfortunate.

The bakla men in the Philippines have no right to demand that the manly and discreet gay men be open about their gender orientation. Manly or straight-acting gay men may announce to the world that they
are gay but it does not follow that they have to be like many bakla -
screaming, noisy, vulgar, mouthing incomprehensible words and in some cases, unhygienic.

Equating effeminism or bakla with gay is stereotyping gay men as sissy guys, which is wrong and improper. But then in Philippine society, stereotyping is the name of the game.

I am gay and have never ever longed to be a woman, which is the dream of many a bakla man, and I am proud to be manly or straight-acting in all aspects. I am offended when somebody brands me “bakla”, when in the
first place I do not fit the definition of the latter term. I am gay but I am not bakla. I respect the gay men and the bakla men and their choices, and I hope they do the same thing to others.

gusto maging next US president si hillary clinton tapos vp nya si john edwards. i don’t like obama kasi i can sense he is hiding something at baka abusuhin nya ang presidential power if ever ma-elect sya just like what george bush is doing right now.

wow that’s great… Hillary supports LGBT!

hi migs

i miss reading your blog

hope all is well with you

james

Naniniwala ako sa sinabi ni Tony. The most disturbing discrimination is happening right within the gay community. The Filipino machismo is so ingrained within us that we smirk, ridicule, lambast the effiminate ones and think of them as lesser individuals. Of course, this is laughable. Pare-pareho lang naman tayong bakla, ah. Why should we assume we are the better homosexual selves than the ones who prefer to wear make-up, who gingerly picks his food, who sway his hips or who shrills in excitement? It’s really funny. Hypocrisy to the highest level. Yes, we do have our own “trips” but we are one and the same. Understanding, acceptance, tolerance and love should come from within our circle. If we expect “other people” to accept and love us as we are, then we shouldn’t cause indifference towards each other di ba? If we can’t love and accept the ones we think are not worthy because they are loud or so ridiculously effiminate and all that, then can we just shut our stuff off and not throw malicious comments that might hurt the concerned party/ies, at least? Whether we are bading or not, tao tayo, we gut hurt, too, you know.

Yun lang. =)

Hi good morning everybody,

What’s happening to me? addicted to Migs blog already, as if eating 3x a day, ako naman, reading MGG 3x a day, hahahha.

Im really happy or may say elated learning through this blog that, there are still a lot of sensible persons. Im not saying or bragging that I am but im trying to be one. Like Jigen Riztag have stated, respect begets respect, “golden rule” baga. I agree with Riztag and Matt.

I hope “openly gay” people respect “closet” people like me to what ever choices we make.

On Migs question, I was really thinking, is it possible to include this kind of topic in our class curriculum? Since this is a modern age, I think everyone is already aware (or just denying) that we do really exist. Kasi nung grade school and high school ako, this topic is still very sensitive that no one dare to touch. (Kailan nga ba ako naka gradruate, I forgot, matanda na, heheh, joke lang po). I think Migs blog have mentioned that in every 10 boys, there is a gay person (am I right, Migs?). So in a class of 50, 25 are boys, the probability is 2 of them are gay. Right? So I think students of that early age(which are easy to teach compared to us adults) how to respect 3rd parties. Probably that way, bullying and such unpleasant manners toward us can be lessen if not eradicated.

@ matt-same here po. Thanks pal.
Pasok na po ako sa trabaho, baka masisante ako, heheh. Good day everybody.

Sinong nagsabing “Sa impyerno ang bagsak ninyong mga bakla!”?! Siguro taga don siya!

u go girl!!!

I dont think Americans are ready for diversity. But had enough with republicans as of the moment. If only Obama has the financial structure as with Clinton, i think he would have a better edge.

As to the speech everybody has said something familiar about it before. Its always nice to hear such powerful words from powerful humans so to speak, but it is much more humane if we need no other humans to make a statement for us to do something.

Gay icons we look up today defy in one way or the other homosexuality during the prime of their careers or shall i say during early days.

I think we have over use the word respect. I don’t even know if we have any knowledge somehow how to use it. And if it does do we really understand what is it all about. When we cannot even accept the word bakla.

If only we stop and accepts our own bullshits and then try to be understanding to the next person, i think we can have a better place. Its too much to ask for respect because as I hear you respect is earned.

What Im asking is a little of your social responsibility.

What is hell? Where is hell? Who lives there? Is there anyone in this world populated by humans who has ever gone to or visited a place which would amount to hell - a place imagined by religious leaders and so-called self-righteous, sinless moralists to be glowing with fire - and has come back to us telling us of what he saw and went through? No! I recall being told years ago by a zealous Manaloite minister - a preacher belonging to the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) founded by Felix Y. Manalo in 1914 - about the certainty of me ending up in hell should I refuse to accept the “Christianity” his Protestant sect taught. His remarked never frightened me. Instead, it made me muster enough courage to tell him straight into his face that if there was hell then he and I would see each other in hell one day, and he would enter that place, not me. I would just stand by the corridor and watch whoever was there. I do not believe in the existence of this so-called hell. Hell is a person who dupes his fellow men, who persecutes others, who slanders his neighbors, who verbally, physically, emotionally, and sexually abuses his siblings, family members, classmates, colleagues, or peers, who oppresses his countrymen, who lies to himself, to his love ones and to the public in general, who steals for the sake of stealing or to sustain a vice, who harrasses persons he perceives as weakling, who discriminates against people of different ethnic, racial, religious, and gender background and those with deformities, amongst others. A public servant who aggrandizes himself is a classic example of hell. So is a motorist who breaks a simple traffic rule. Engaging in sex with a person of the same sex does not mean sending our souls to that hell they are making us believe exist. But keeping a mistress or cheating on your partner, turning a person into a mere sex object or a sex slave, and bringing children after children into this world despite your deplorable economic and financial status are such hellish acts! There is no hell. That person who uttered that gays and bakla would eventually take up residence in Perdition was hell! If indeed there is hell, then Lucifer the so-called angel who rebelled against his God, and who, many claim, dwells in hell, is probably one of our kind - gay and happy.

HEY!!:)

For those in the Philippines, how is it like being an open homosexual?

@Tony and Clark Can’t: I agree to both of your sentiments. The discrimination happens within the 3rd sex circle (openly gay and not) hence do we expect others(heterosexuals) to respect and treat us fair? I don’t think so.
@Tony: I salute you for the courage to do “the walk out” thing.
@Durrty: Yes I believe you. There are a lot of prominent people and “superior race” teaching us about human rights, but are they really practicing it? Look whats happening to the world.
About hell. Where is hell? I don’t think we have to look far, just turn around and you can see it vividly. Our notion of hell is fire, right?, we have it. Famine, we have it too. Torture?, definitely we got it (from our bosses classmates, probably home etc), drugs, sickness, discrimination, prostitution, poverty, calamities, oppression, rape, child labor, don’t you guys that these things are not enough hell for us? So I dont think its only gays who would die and go to hell, everyone of us are already in hell even though we are still living. Kaya sana po, we should try to be respectful, understanding and compassionate to other (whether straight or not) para naman po we can live harmoniously na parang heaven. Di po ba pag walang away, ang sarap ng pakiramdam. Peace to everyone.

@JT parang tinodo mo na ang pag comment dito ah! parang 3x a day na? hmmm

My straight identical twin brother told me this when he found out.
(He fiddled through my phone when I was sleeping and he saw my then bf’s sweet pictures with me and our exchanges of messages.)
“Sana naging drug addict ka nalang. Mas katanggap tangap yun, hindi ka normal, kapansanan yan.”

“I am gay but I am not bakla. I respect the gay men and the bakla men and their choices, and I hope they do the same thing to others.”

i-quote ko lang yung nagsabi nito sa itaas. iniisip ko lang, since sa kulturang pinoy kapag sinabi mong “bakla” ang isang tao, eh derogatory o masama sa pandinig ang dating. (trivia: “bakla” is an old tagalog word and can be found in the verses of the Pasyon, “Nasa jardin si Jesus at Siya’y nababakla”. i think in that context, it means “naguguluhan” o “nalilito”. kindly correct me if i am wrong.)

sa kasalukuyang konteksto ng ating kultura, kapag ang isang lalaki’y tinawag na bakla, eh manaka-nakang minumura mo siya o may kalakip na panlilibak. although, it’s laudable that the queerer segment of the filipino gay population is trying to reverse the meaning of this word. regardless, the word “bakla” still carries with it the stigma of ridicule.

ano kayang nararapat na salitang katutubo ang maaaring gamitin upang maitawag sa yaong bahagi ng populasyong kalalakihan na naaakit o umiibig sa kahalintuald na kasarian? (malalim ba? soowwweee… )

i define myself as a gay man. BUT there are instances when the word “gay” doesn’t encapsulate me as a Filipino. the word has western socio-political roots AND NOT, as i see it, “Pinoy” enough. to quip, a very close relative when asked by a friend of his about me (his friend can’t seem to reconcile the fact that i am gay and devoid of effeminate accoutrements), he answered, “hindi bakla si kuya. silahis siya.”

nalito ako lalo. hahahaha, sa pagkakaalam ko, ang silahis eh “chickboy” - pwede sa chick, pwede sa boy.

napag-isip-isip lamang po.

to JT:
e ano naman pala ang tinatawag na “bading”? kung ang salitang “bakla” ay nangangahulugan ng kalituhan…e ung transexual ano sa Filipino un? saka ung gay? ha? gulo, dami kc tawag eh….bakla, bading, gay, homosexual, transexual…..
mejo out of topic ako, but just asking lng nmn. Peace.

From a Western perspective, a gay man is basically straight-acting, is devoid of any inclinations towards effeminism or any desires of becoming a woman, and is emotionally, physically, and sexually attracted to person of the same gender orientation. A gay man usually falls in love with another gay man. A survey of gay men would include ramp models, soldiers, police officers, sailors, pilots, cowboys, construction workers, wrestlers, athletes, office workers, priests and ministers and religious workers, waiters, scuba divers, body builders, etc.

From a Filipino viewpoint, a gay man is perceived to be effeminate. With no closest Tagalog or Filipino translation, the term “bakla” is used to make a reference to any gay man. A “bakla” is a Filipino man who wants to become a woman because he “feels” he is a woman “trapped in a man’s body” (which such thinking is not shared by a gay man if understood from a Western point of view). To realize this desire to become a woman, the bakla emulates a woman’s actions including sounding like a woman, wears make-up, clads himself in women’s clothes, and behaves just like her. Thus, he transforms into a transvestite. To further achieve “womanhood”, he undergoes a sex change, and once this is accomplished, he “metamorphosed” into a transsexual. A “bakla” man would normally fall in love with a straight guy or a real man, owing to the fact that “he feels he is a woman”. In the Philippines, stereotyping is prevalent and society dictates that if you are gay, you have to be effeminate, to be transvestite, a notion which does not sit well with gay men.

Was Alexander the Great effeminate? He was gay but certainly not a transvestite. Were the two cowboys in the movie “Brokeback Mountain” sissy or “bakla”? Definitely not. It is just wrong and improper to call a gym-toned, manly gay man “bakla” - meaning effeminate or sissy or “babae din iyan” - and force him to be like his bakla counterpart. Just call him gay, period.

If you want to be identified as “bakla”, that is fine with me. I am gay and I am straight-acting in all aspects. However, I will address a “bakla” man and and a gay man by their given names, not by their preferred gender orientation.

In light pf this post entry, from now on…I’m gonna call a gay man whether bakla, effem, bisexual, tranny, bading, butch, silahis, or whathaveyous as…HILLARIES…o ano me reklamo?

i guess the reason why we gays are being bullied is because we let people bully us…we let them talk thrash to us without doing anything,,,we think that what they say is nothing really but the fact is there is something to it…all we need to do is ACT…

As a Filipino living here in the U.S. (L.A.) This blog’s actually interesting. My friend e-mailed a story which had the link of this website. Anyways, that’s going way out of the spectrum of discussion. I’m actually glad that Hillary Clinton is taking a stand for equal rights and benefits to our fellow “team mates”. I watched the earlier debates on CNN, and she mentioned something about granting the same equal rights to gay and lesbian couples the same way they’re given to straight citizens here. And by the way things are going on with the presidential campaign here, she is in a lead. Of course the only hurdle that she’ll come across (if she ever becomes the President) are the bible-thumping Republicans. Hahahahaha! Good thing the Senate and House are mostly Democrats now.

mama hillary, we love you na! ahehehehe

krek. Go obama pa rin

ang haba naman ng mga nag comment dito,,basta ako pagsama samahin nyo yung mga sagot nyo, yun ang sagot ko,,hehe,, kung nasa tate lang ako i will vote for hillary,,Ü

i still dont like hillary, and tama pala ung previous comment ko ayan nalampaso na cya ni obama…hahaha

that is sooo hillary