ALB from Harvard University (Graduated 2018)
Hi this is actually a difficult question to answer because the Philippines LGBTQ scene is really quite a phenomenon. It exists and thrives in a very conservative, Catholic society and seems as if there are more people identifying with LGBTQ than most other places I've experienced. I’m going to answer this with my observations from living in the Philippines for over a year.
There are a number of forces pushing this LGBTQ culture forward in the Philippines.
First you have the natural process of people naturally becoming homosexual. Anywhere you go, there are men and women who will identify themselves either publicly or to themselves that they are homosexual. From this group, there will be a group that invariably decides to become transgender. Just like back at home in Seattle there are people who run with the “twinks,” others as “bears,” some you would never know they were gay unless they told you and some decide to be transgender. How all this happens I have no clue, I’m a straight man.
Next, you have this incredibly powerful force in the Philippines which is television. Television in the Philippines is dominated by gay culture and commands the attention of hundreds of thousands of young Filipin@s for many hours of the day, simply because there's not a lot of money going around and it's inexpensive entertainment. The Filipin@s witnesses the success and empowerment of these LBGTQ TV personalities and grow up respecting them.
With that said, I’ll never believe that someone can become gay by watching television. What will say is that, in my opinion only, television is helping young gay Filipinos identify who they are and is encouraging them to come out at an earlier age. The youth culture now is very accepting of this and backed by all their successful role models on television, it’s actually quite cool to be the gay kid in the Philippines these days. Now, with these very young kids coming out it seems to us straight people that there might be something wrong or artificial happening when really there’s nothing wrong at all.
Next, believe it or not there are some job opportunities for young gay Filipinos, (In a strictly relative sense to their peers). Sales managers like to hire gays because of they are quite outgoing whereas the normal Filipino is generally shy and quiet. As far as I understand it’s easier for them than others to find reasonable work in show business.
Think about this, as a regular guy in the Philippines the two things I interact more with in society than others are stores and shops because everything I need in life I need to buy, and also television. These are two places where LBGTQ Filipin@s have carved a little niche in. Since I’m interacting with these more than other things in society I may be lead to believe that this greater prevalence of LBGTQ Filipinos in these two aspects of society is actually representative of the whole Philippines. This is in correct. All this may prompt me to wonder from time to time something like “why are there so many transsexuals in the Philippines.”
I’m going to talk about one more thing that is sad, and has to do with prostitution. There are lucrative opportunities, for those who choose to do it, in prostitution for all the gay, ladyboy and transgender Filipinos because of all the foreign tourists, on top of locals, who are paying for sex. The Filipin@s that do this will congregate to places of wealth and tourism because that’s where their business is. It becomes really unnerving for example, when I’m walking on the beach going back to my place in Boracay and I’m solicited for sex services by transgenders and ladyboys no less than a dozen times. If this is the only part of the Philippines I see, I might leave the country thinking something is terribly wrong and that the culture is somehow corrupt. All this really is a matter of demand and congregation of supply.
I feel like in this answer I’ve explained the life of the LGBTQ Filipin@ to be slightly easier than straight Filipin@s but there’s a cruel reality that exists in the Philippines. The Philippine culture and the Catholicism runs deep and with this the Philippines respects LGBTQ Filipin@s but only in certain roles like showbusiness and quietly precludes them from opportunities in other parts of society. Just like in the United States, progress is needed in the Philippines for the LGBTQ cause, should this happen maybe there would be fewer LGBTQ Filipin@s engaging prostitution.
I hope this helps, and I would really like any LGBTQ readers to chime in on this and correct any of my observations and assumption in my answer here.
Thanks so much and mabuhay!
No comments:
Post a Comment