do you think lgbt is already accepted in the philippines?
do you think there's still prejudice against lgbt in the philippines?
do you think there's hate crime in the philippines?
those were the questions posted in the Filipino Free Thinkers meet up end of August which i attended to for the first time.
i think accepted is not the word, but more like tolerated, at least in manila. is tolerance a form of acceptance? maybe. the workforce now welcomes diversity and promotes equal rights. it's becoming common to see cross-dressers and some lgbt couples in public places, doing couple stuff. hehe. for the next question, prejudice. i think there is prejudice, but not to a point that will physically harm any one. there may be snide remarks or hush hush talks behind our back, sometimes, on our face, often in the form of a joke for those who are subtle. there are soo many lgbt jokes that there'd be volumes if we compile them into a book! so is being joked about prejudice? well, are there gender/sexuality-specific jokes about the heteros? thus i feel that it's a form of prejudice.
am thinking that maybe we are so hungry for acceptance that to be talked/ridiculed in the form of jokes is good enough for us. we sort of think that to be ridiculed or be the butt of joke is a form of acceptance because at least we are now being talked about and acknowledged as existing. now the jokes don't seem that funny to me anymore.
there are hate crimes as the data shown to us proves. but these were under the blanket category of crime and not specified as hate crime. and it seems to me that the prejudice and hate are directed towards the extreme types of the lgbt spectrum. like those distinctly/stereotypical lgbt - butch, drags/cross-dressers. because in the haters' mind, those are the only kind of lgbt. maybe this is reason to come out, to make it known that we do look like the straights too, only more fabulous. hehe. that we are in all industries in various positions, even the influential stature too. hello, tim cook! new ceo of apple.
i will post some more about this maybe later. i just want to prelude the event later.
i joined this sub group in Filipino Free Thinkers: THE PHILIPPINE LGBT HATE CRIME WATCH.
It is a diverse, inclusive, and non-partisan community of individuals and organizations dedicated to ending anti-LGBT prejudice and the hate crimes born from it.
There's a meet up later. sorry for the late post.
Saturday, 10 SEPTEMBER 2011, 1PM - TODAY!
at Cafe Mo inside TREEHOUSE in Matalino Street,
Barangay Central, Quezon City
3 comments:
you're welcome
I attended this talk Ang Ladlad hosted in UP Manila last summer ata... if there's anything that struck me then as profoundly true, it's that tolerance is a far cry from acceptance. The Philippines may be progressing in that aspect, but at what rate? :/ There's still a long way before the majority would ever be purged clean of the cringing and name-calling and prejudice.
Only when you're privileged enough to revolve in a circle of open-minded people do you have semblance of a freedom.
@Anonymous - hay. soo true. i will post abt what you just explained. i admit, i am kinda getting complacent because of this "tolerance" thing. but when you said "far cry", that hurt. so thank you for putting things in perspective for me :)
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