Politics: Now gay in the Philippines

When actress/beauty queen Miriam Quiambao expressed her religious beliefs, several Gay, Lesbian and Trans-gender personalities harshly criticized her for being Anti-Gay.

When Manny Pacquiao was asked about US President Barack Obama supporting same sex marriage, Pacman expressed his religious belief based on the Catholic Bible. For expressing his belief, Pacquiao was quickly chastised by local Gay activist as well as a Congressman previously associated with leftist pro communist groups.

A week later, local Gay activists from the Ladlad group reaffirmed their intent to launch their Party-list group as well as a plan to run for the Senate of outspoken Gay activist Danton Remoto.

In the same week, former Manila Mayor Lito Atienza and election lawyer Attorney Macalintal led the “charge” of some religious groups against the Lady Gaga concert. While Atienza and Macalintal are known to be devout and active Catholics, they are also very much associated with politics in the Philippines.

With the advantage of hindsight, it would be safe to say that a lot of what has been going on recently is not so much about Gay issues or the concerns of Gays, Lesbians and Trans-Genders. To be quite blunt about it, the series of controversies has all been politically motivated.

Instead of praising Barack Obama for being pro- same sex marriage, the Gay community should be insulted by the obvious attempt of Barack Obama to ride on the same-sex marriage controversy to gain support or gather votes. Time and again Obama has given his support to groups whenever it was convenient or necessary to win an election or pass a particular legislation even if he was not a big believer or supporter of a cause or group.

The gay community should be insulted because Obama’s hollow support is an empty endorsement from a politician more interested in saving his political career than honestly addressing the community’s concerns. Unlike his European counterparts who have developed honest and practical solutions such as legal gay “partnerships”, Obama’s thoughts on same-sex marriage simply expressed a pre-meditated, politically motivated opinion that was non-committal and empty.

If he had made the statement in the Philippines, we would probably be saying: “Ng Uuto si Obama”. The same goes for US media and headline writers who misquoted or intentionally exaggerated and sensationalized what Pacquiao said all for the purpose of selling their newspapers or hyping the story.

So after several weeks of bashing Miriam and Pacquiao, the Gay community may now find the shoe on the other foot.

After being prevented from having their own party-list movement, it is no stretch of the imagination to suspect that the recent protests and howls from “representatives” of the Gay, lesbian, Trans-gender community were political opportunism meant to justify the need for political representation.

I admire the excellent work of various Gay groups in terms of creating media hype and focus on their agendas, but sometimes all this backfires on them. When a group went to the Human Rights Commission to highlight the global campaign against “hate crimes” or attacks or discrimination against gay people, Commissioner Etta Rosales ended up taking center stage instead of the focus being on hate crimes.

When local activists harshly criticized Manny Pacquiao and called upon sponsors to boycott or drop him as an endorser, gay activists did not realize that there is a silent whiplash in the form of his fans, Catholics and Christians as well, who resented the vicious attacks and are now less likely to be supportive or compassionate towards Gay concerns.

In the end “forcing” Pacquiao into a corner for an apology achieves nothing. Instead of fighting fire with fire, the local community would have achieved more by reaching out to Pacman, strategically giving their kababayan support and ultimately having him on their side. Instead, the outcry against Pacman simply attracted political flies that took advantage of the publicity to get bigger media exposure.

At this juncture, it would also be wise for our friends in the Gay, Lesbian and Trans-gender community to be wary of unsolicited support or so-called tactical alliances. There maybe strength in numbers but do the numbers truly work for your interests? Certain leftist groups have constantly wooed marginalized sectors or communities who feel left out. Unfortunately, in the end, these partnerships result in the small groups being polarized, negative and infected by leftist radicalism. In the end, the Beautiful and the Gay soon become angry and ugly.

As a final thought, one must never throw caution to the wind in things political or social. After several weeks of high profile Gay offensives or radicalism, all the movement has apparently awakened the sleeping giant called religious conservatism.

While Atienza and Macalintal could be dismissed as political flies, they may also represent a growing sentiment and number, among Catholics and Christians who now feel compelled to stand up or speak out against “attacks on the family”, the “Gay Agenda” or “western immorality”. After decades of being the silent minority or non-combative, I suspect that Philippine Catholics and Christians have slowly been awakened to take a pro-active if not combative role against the RH bill, Abortion, the growing number of broken marriages and families and yes the radical and aggressive promotion of the Gay agenda. Belated as it is, their protests against the Born this way ball and the antics of Lady Gaga, may be a sign that the Catholics and the Christians are about to be Born-Again into an equally active and aggressive defense of their beliefs.

As for tonight’s concert, I suggest that the officials of Pasay City simply require the concert promoter to put up a multi-million-peso bond rather than publicly threaten to stop the show. Why risk a riot that can be blamed on city hall and why dare someone like Gaga to go Gago?

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