Young Underpaid Professionals

Caveat: To be able to read and appreciate this essay, you should be armed with the prerequisite knowledge of sarcasm and irony, the ability to acknowledge the absurdity of our government, and have a good set of balls and a backbone.

This morning, I had barely wiped the drool off my face when I read this piece of news: In a ruling last November 11, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) denied the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transexual) party, Ang Ladlad’s application for party-list accreditation on the grounds of advocating “sexual immorality.” In between laughing in incredulity and getting riled up, my brain woke up. Reading news like this is equivalent to getting shot with pure caffeine.

Despite being legalese impaired, I read the 8-page ruling to be able to decipher whether or not the ruling was made with just cause. Bad idea. Here’s a snippet:

…this Petition is dismissible on moral grounds. Petitioner (Ang Ladlad) defines the Filipino Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community, thus:

“xxx a marginalized and under-represented sector that is particularly disadvantaged because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.”

and proceeded to define sexual orientation as that which:

“xxx refer to a person’s capacity for profound emotional, affectional and sexual attraction to, and intimate and sexual relations with, individuals of a different gender, of the same gender, or more than one gender.”

This definition of the LGBT sector makes it crystal clear that petitioner tolerates immorality which offends religious beliefs.

Wow, just wow. I was temporarily rendered slack jawed speechless by this document – with footnotes and sources that direct readers to the Bible, the Koran, and Lehman Strauss. It made me realize a lot of things which I shall try to expound (I shall also try to be coherent) in the next paragraphs.

Another snippet from the ruling got a “whaaat? o_o” reaction:

“The ‘ANG LADLAD’ apparently advocates sexual immorality as indicated in the Petition’s par. 6F: ‘Consensual partnerships or relationships by gays and

(2) serve no other purpose but to satisfy the market for violence, lust or pornography; (3) offend any race or religion; (4) tend to
abet traffic in and use of prohibited drugs; and (5) are contrary to law, public order, morals. and qood customs, established
policies, lawful orders, decrees and edicts;

(3) Those who shall sell, give away or exhibit films, prints, engravings, sculpture or literature which are offensive to morals. (As amended by PD Nos. 960 and 969).”

Again, I was struck with a mind-numbing catatonia. Was this a typo? Was the court stenographer suddenly gripped with a confounding spell that made him/her black out at the word gays and resume at an enumeration that can be perfectly misunderstood – it’s as if the Comelec was lumping the LGBT community with pornography, use and proliferation of illegal drugs, and “art.” It was a few minutes later that I realized I was missing a page, but by then my mind was already reeling from the statements. Where is Page 6?

As you can probably tell, I’m having a hard time keeping irritation under my heel, thus affecting the cohesion and flow of this article. [Takes a deep breath, resumes writing.]

Toto, I don’t think we’re in the 21st century anymore.

The good gentlemen down at the Comelec had made me realize that this is not the 21st century. We’re back in the Dark Ages folks, except like in the 21st century, we’re still using fossil fuels like there’s no tomorrow, spit in Mother Nature’s face approximately every .000002321 nanoseconds, and see people getting killed not for land or honor, but for parking space. And no measure of tapping those ruby shoes together is ever going to take you back to the good old “enlightened” 21st century.

While we’re on the subject of the Dark Ages, why not bind women’s feet again? Why not restrict voting to rich males again? Heck, why not combine the Church and State again? That should be fun, right? While we’re at it, why not have another go at the Salem witch hunts? Another Spanish Inquisition, another Crusades? Why not resurrect the KKK (not the Katipunan)?

Seriously, I thought I lived in a time when people are starting to understand. A time when more people (more, not most) are inclined to think for themselves and not just follow popular belief, when people are inclined to accept ideas different from their own, ideas that may disagree with their religion or moral values ingrained in them since birth.

A time when people are realizing the difference between tolerance and acceptance. Progress and modernization shouldn’t be confined to the technological sort; it should also apply to things like ideals and belief systems. In the 18th century, women’s suffrage was an underground reform movement; in World War II, if you were a Jew, you were not allowed to breathe. And there was a time when your skin color defined whether you are to be called an Indio or not. We’re here and now, in the 21st century – haven’t you guys grown tired of all this bigotry, hate, ethnic discrimination, and racism?

In case my point wasn’t clear, here’s what my friend Rem had to say about it:

I read about the Ang Ladlad and COMELEC issue this morning. Nung una, quick scan lang ng headlines and at first sight I thought – “ah, nakahanap ng legal loophole tong mga gagong ‘to.”

Then I read the entire article and I couldn’t help but laugh.

I laughed (and continue to laugh) because of the irony of it all. The COMELEC has been mouthing off for the longest time about the need to modernize the way elections are held in our country. The great minds behind dagdag-bawas and the not-so-indelible ink said that these modernizations could be done by the complete computerization of the voting process. What they seem to forget is this – making our elections modern doesn’t stop with computerized voting. It may start there, but should never stop there.

The most important yet, ironically, the most overlooked aspect of modernization is the modernization of the COMELEC’s belief system – the realization and the acceptance that the Philippine moral atmosphere is changing and that different sectors, who were tagged as taboo before, are slowly but surely coming out of the closet to make their voices heard. Thus, COMELEC’s denial of Ang Ladlad’s party list accreditation is not only an injustice, it’s also a denial of reality.

Unfortunately for them and for us, walang overpriced na makina na makakapag-modernize ng belief system.

Comelec as the morality police

There are a thousand and one things wrong with the wording in the ruling, I honestly do not know where to start. Maybe it’s not just the wording, but the conviction and righteous indignation behind it as well. Who voted the Comelec morality police? If one were to cast the first stone, would the Comelec even be qualified to pick up stones? Okay, so they’re not in the list of the most corrupt all-stars (BIR, Bureau of Customs, DPWH, LTO, PNP), but unlike most people, a song and dance number will not make me forget the Hello Garci tape and the other anomalous blackhole lined ballot boxes the Comelec fiendishly employ.

If the Comelec were to continue with this line of denial reasons, why stop at the “sexual deviants”? Why not deny monopolists, trapos, corrupt public officials, philanderers, pillagers, and nepotists, among others’ candidacy and party-list applications as well? Don’t they go against morally accepted behavior? It begs the question, what is morally acceptable?

In a country where it is normal for politicians to have a harem of legal wives, common law wives, girlfriends, mistresses and what-nots, plus a couple of hundred children, with mansions and cars bought from ill-gotten gains, who decides what is morally acceptable?

The LGBT community as a marginalized and under-represented sector

As far as I know, the LGBT community is not tax exempt which makes them pretty much the same as any other citizen. As far as I know, the LGBT community has the same set of human rights everybody else has, civil and political rights like the right to vote and protection from discrimination. I guess what I’m driving at is, could the Comelec have come up with a better and legally more sound reason to deny a group representation in the 2010 Elections? Really, if they did have something not resembling a wet piece of paper as justification, people – voters and tax payers – like me won’t be pissed. I know we live in a country straight out of a Murakami or a Kafka story, but sometimes I like to think that there is hope for these islands, that the rotten government and the rotten system won’t last very long and eventually there will be room for change.

I guess that’s what they’re afraid of – change, and the looming possibility that their beliefs will soon be rendered obsolete, that soon THEY will be obsolete.

I know, I know. Know that I sound angry when I am very sad, this is an issue that hits close to home – especially since I read Libba Bray’s piece on Proposition 9 (There is nothing wrong with you, read it, read it, read it). I’m a dreamer in these sort of things, and I hope eventually, this kind of things won’t happen anymore. In my realist heart though, I know it’ll be a long and arduous road ahead, and Danton Remoto’s going to be taking a huge risk when he runs for a Senate seat next year. Imagine, the first openly gay candidate for Senate. I guess for now, that’s what I’ll do. Imagine.

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