Majority of straight men do not have a proper venue for productive discourse with regard to men’s issues because, in the dominant paradigm of gender politics, straight men are considered to be the privileged oppressors in patriarchal cultures and are, therefore, in no position to voice out grievances, especially grievances about the opposite sex.
The Board of the Cultural Center of the Philippines will face a Senate hearing this Tuesday morning, August 16 at 930am in the Plenary Hall of the Senate Building in Manila to answer for their 'crime' of displaying the Kulo exhibit. The CBCP and its conservative religious right allies will be mobilizing en masse to support their new inquisition, so we are putting out a call to any and all who can make it to troop to the plenary hall gallery (as its a public hearing any valid ID will get you in) and support freedom of speech.
As a signatory and ratifier, the Philippines is legally bound by international law to follow GC34. In the comment, it says that, “Prohibitions of displays of lack of respect for a religion or other belief system, including blasphemy laws, are incompatible with the Covenant….”
The “blasphemous” works of Mideo Cruz are no more an excuse for a faith-driven riot by Christian fanatics than the portrayal of Batman and Robin as gay lovers are an excuse for superhero fans to lynch the spoof-makers.
The underlying idea being fought over via church bulletin boards, bumper stickers, and Facebook walls is the seemingly novel concept of freedom. In this issue, the CBCP and its cohorts seem unaware that the concept of free expression is meaningless if it were meant only to protect the agreeable but not the offensive.