Opposites attract

By Netnet Camomot

THE bonggang-bongga 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games’ opening ceremony must have caused some “Dilawan” jaws to drop to and remain on the floor. I watched its Youtube video on Sunday night and my heart was bursting with pride and joy for being Pinoy. Had the Dilawan helped in planning the SEA Games instead of criticizing it even before it could start, they could have joined the celebration and savored the feeling of a proud and joyful Pinoy, too.

Every country’s political scenario has an administration and an opposition since the latter could only wish they’re sitting on the presidential throne instead of sitting on a throne in a confused restroom that’s now for all—male, female, LGBTQIA, etc.—to avoid accusations of discrimination.

An organization is like a country, too, with an administration that’s focusing on accomplishing the organization’s goals, and an opposition that gossips about anything the administration does, but it’s not because the opposition wants to take over since that requires loads of voluntary work, but because they want the administration to fail as much as they did when they were in-charge once upon a time—it’s crab mentality at its worst.

The Dilawan sees nothing but only the negative side of President Rody Duterte to the extent that it almost looks like the Dilawan is forcing himself to dig up all the negativity that he can accuse Duterte of. Well, that task is not exactly difficult—all it takes is one alleged extrajudicial killing of a suspected drug user.

Allegations and suspicions are di-tiyak, which was one of the terms used a long time ago for the LGBTQIA community. At the “Divorce, Sogie and Gay Union: Why? and Why Not?” conference last Saturday held at Chali Beach Resort and Conference Center, Cagayan de Oro, my seatmate asked, Unsa gani meaning ana? And I replied, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Asexual. She must have thought I’m a genius for memorizing the acronym’s meaning. Should I have told her I Googled it? Hmmm.

“Sogie” is another acronym that needs to be Googled. It stands for Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Expression.

Ansel Beluso was one of the speakers at the conference. When my cousin, Dr. Therese Borromeo-Lumicao, invited me weeks ago to the conference and she mentioned Beluso, it so happened that I had watched a video of his showbiz talk show with Aster Amoyo where the young Karla Estrada was a guest, making me notice for the first time that her son, Daniel Padilla, is her carbon copy—he is her male version.

Beluso was then a popular talk show host, along with Inday Badiday. Yup, these memories are making me feel old. Hehe.

Beluso now describes himself as an ex-gay. Another speaker at the conference was Atty. Jo Imbong who talked about marriage and said there should be no ex-husband or ex-wife since marriage is sacred, much like there’s no ex-father, ex-mother, ex-son, and ex-daughter. And my thought bubble immediately recalled the scene in “Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back” where Darth Vader tells Luke Skywalker, “No, I am your father.”

Beluso has been married for 18 years now and has three sons. He said that the orientation is not a sin; it’s the behavior—when an LGBTQIA member engages in sexual activity with the same sex—that’s a sin. I gotta feeling the LGBTQIA community will be confused with that since sex is considered as the ultimate expression of love. But sex can also be used as a mere R&R for both heterosexual and homosexual encounters, as easy as other stress-relieving outlets like exercise, prayers, communing with nature, reading, writing, eating, smoking, drinking, drugs, etc.

Last Sunday, the World Aids Day 2019 commemoration held at Ayala Centrio, Cagayan de Oro had a person living with HIV giving his testimony. He admitted to having unprotected sex with men and also using drugs, which could be the worst formula since drugs could make one forget about safe sex and even the names and faces of sex partners. So, how to trace the sexual history back if there’s now a need to inform them all about his HIV diagnosis?

LGBTQIA, HIV, and Sogie are sensitive topics as people are careful in not being accused of discrimination. But let’s go back to Deluso’s emphasis on the difference between orientation and behavior. Everyone and almost everything on Earth have rights such as human rights, animal rights, and environmental rights. A believer in God may tend to refer to Genesis and the Garden of Eden where He told Adam and Eve to “go forth and multiply,” which has become one of the bases of arguments against same-sex marriage, that God didn’t advise Adam and Adam, or Eve and Eve to “go forth and multiply.” But that was in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve were the only human beings that existed.

Science, however, can make things possible, including literally turning Adam into Eve and vice versa, except that a former Adam who’s now Eve cannot have babies yet. But in the future, jaws will probably drop to and remain on the floor as science will continue to make the impossible happen again.