Beyond Valkyrie: Gay Pride is not always a party

Rey Asis

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Beyond Valkyrie: Gay Pride is not always a party
'It's not all party and apples, honey. We need to carry hammers and break chains, too.'

NOW I WONDER what the organizers and attendees of the Gay Pride in the Philippines have to say about this. (READ: Veejay Floresca: Lift Valkyrie’s ban on ‘crossdressers’)

It’s about time we tone down the partying and address real issues here, this being one of them.

Being a member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community in the Philippines is not always about glamor and fun. Many of us face discrimination. We are stereotyped into certain jobs or “careers,” bullied to come out or get back in the closet, and shamed by men in capes.

Various media have made us think that we live an easy life. Oh heck, we even get mixed expectations. That we are okay as long as we don’t engage in sex. That we are so fun to be with because we make people laugh. That we are fine as long as we don’t become their children. That we are okay as long as we keep our mouths shut about injustices that we and others experience.

I remember how a classmate in high school had to dress up “straight” so she could be allowed to enter the university, to get the job she wanted, to be in a relationship she dreamed of having. Ironically, she had to conform to be “normal” to become who she really was. 

The Philippines is not an LGBT-accepting society. It is merely tolerant. The thing is, not much has been done. There are no policies to protect us against discrimination. There are no laws to punish hate crimes.

Beyond the issue of gender are the varying economic statures and forms of discrimination that come with it. There are many LGBTs in the marginalized sectors of society. They experience landlessness, poverty, joblessness, lack of opportunities, aggression, and violence. They live in rural areas, shanties, boats, and under bridges. They are not just LGBT, they too are farmers, workers, urban poor, indigenous peoples, fisherfolk, and migrants.

The vast majority of the LGBT people receive wages way below the value of their hard work, only to be called lazy and unsmart.

Their well-off peers are fine, svelte, and dandy, while they belong to the social-climbing, low-bred, and uber-bakya crowd. Discrimination is real. I don’t need to eat organic to know how it tastes. Oppression tastes just as bad. And we don’t want it anymore. 

It is this oppressive system – feudal, patriarchal, and profit-oriented – that sucks the life and dignity out of us. It values money over the rights of people. It discriminates and maintains the status quo.

“Eff it,” I say to same sex marriages. For my friends who support it, I respect you. But for me, the memories of the Stonewall for the LGBT community in the Philippines and in other parts of the world including the US remain so vivid, so real, so palpable. (READ: Pride is the opposite of shame)

The horrors they fought against during that time are the same horrors we are fighting against right now. It’s not all party and apples, honey. We need to carry hammers and break chains, too. – Rappler.com

Rey Asis is a migrant worker. He works for the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) based in Hong Kong. He is gay.

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