Dulling The Gay Blade

My College professor posed to us the classic Lifeboat Scenario. You know the one: You're the captain of a sinking ship, and you have to decide which passengers to save in a lifeboat of limited capacity. Passengers were like a heart surgeon, an 86 year-old woman, a teacher, etc. One student chose among her survivors a gay man. Her reason: He can make the children on the boat laugh. To this, my professor replied rather icily: I didn't say he was a stand-up comic.

This happened back in the eighties. Today, the Filipino's view on gay people has changed little. To be sure, we have many gay folks in positions of responsibility. I personally have worked with many and have come away respecting them greatly. Yet mention the word 'gay' to the to the average Pinoy, and chances are, s/he will think not of a dignified Sir Ian McKellen, but of someone like Vice Ganda.

Yes, the Pinoy may respect gays (with may being the operative word), but they simply love them when they present the caricature of popular cinema, the loud, crude, shallow, stupid, sexually obsessed parlorista. No Filipino movie, be it action, drama or romance is complete without the obligatory gay character for comic relief.

Frankly, I cannot understand why the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual and Transsexual community is silent on this travesty. If I were among their ranks, I would slam anyone who perpetuates the very stereotype they are trying to live down. (Worse, we have gays who actually encourage this caricature.) I would hang Roderick Paulate in effigy. They may say it's 'all right' since it's harmless, but I disagree. These caricatures are saying: This is what a real gay is like. And the audience is comfortable with such clear labeling. But a gay who doesn't behave like this (that is, behaves like a straight person in all but sexual preference) becomes an object of suspicion, like s/he was trying to hide something. How often we hear the reason for one's distrust being: Eh, bakla kasi.

By all means, if you want to sashay, mince and squeal, (in short, be a fag instead of being just gay) then do so. But don't go around promoting it as the norm. You're ruining the respect that others are fighting so hard for.