EDITORIAL - Drawing the line

Personal relationships are a private matter and in an increasingly open and tolerant society, public displays of affection and intimacy by individuals who are obviously carrying on a personal relationship are now getting tolerated and even accepted with rising regularity.

But sometimes public displays of affection and intimacy still do scandalize people, especially if the relationship is clearly of a nature that people do not often see as regular and everyday. People confronted with such displays often feel revolted and find them in bad taste.

In a jeepney recently, a college student in the uniform of an exclusive school for girls was carrying on with another young girl in street clothes, oblivious to the presence of the other passengers who were thrust into a situation they did not expect and cannot control.

The girl in civvies had an arm around the student's waist while the student had a hand on the other girl's thigh. With their free hands, they caressed and pinched each other on the cheek, all the while whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears.

The other passengers were scandalized not so much by the open display of affection as by the fact that the spectacle involved youngsters of the same sex, with one of them being actually a student of one of the most respected schools for girls in the city.

What is this world coming to, said some of the passengers after the two lovebirds of the same feather alighted together. The others, relieved that the cause of their discomfort had gone, tried to make light of the incident by cracking lewd jokes, at the expense of you-know-who.

The two girls may have passed into anonymity. None of the passengers knew who they were. But the uniform of one was a dead giveaway. It shouted the identity of the school it represented, as well as those who are running it. And that is the most unfortunate and damning thing.

In this increasingly open and tolerant society, the temptation is great to regard the incident as a private matter between two individuals who made private choices. But is it really as simple as that? Are there really no more lines we can draw? Can we even still draw them?