On Equal Respect and Reality.

Last Saturday, I went to my first LGBT Pride March under the banner of the Filipino Freethinkers. It was worth every bit of sweat. My heart is swelling with so much pride it could shit exclamation marks. LIKE THIS!!!!!!!!

I could not be thankful enough for the multitude who came to support the cause; All the people who honked and cheered, all the people who shook hands and smiled, all the people who had cheerful thoughts in their hearts as united marchers blocked the roads. And the children! I wish we could all be like the children who asked whether Jesus truly loved gays.

Sigh.

Unfortunately, although the metropolis seems to accept LGBT with undoubted sincerity, gay men and women are still not real men and women. At least, that’s how our mainstream media sees it. In one TV journalist’s words: “…gays and lesbians are just as worthy of respect as real men and women”.

See, they respect us. Just not enough to think we’re “real”.

Apparently, it’s always just an act to them, this being non-heterosexual or non-straight. It’s always just a reaction to the normal: a by-product, nothing authentic or rooted. Masculine gays will always be just acting masculine because love for one’s own gender will always be the province of heterosexuals. Gays can’t be butch! That’s an oxymoron! Gays will always act like the sex opposite to their own.

This is because gays are not real, according to nature. Their view of nature. Not as real as the straights, at least.

But we should know better.

I am not a fan of labels or boxes. The whole idea of dichotomous identities is still foreign to me. But how ever we name ourselves, gay-straight-omni-trans-bi-nameless, we are just as real as everybody else. And we have to let others know that. There is no ‘everybody else’. No ‘other’.

Just us. Just everybody.