Philippines and Gays: From Babaylans to Charice

After I read “A revealing map of the countries that are most and least tolerant of homosexuality” by Max Fisher where the writer said that he doesn’t know why Philippines has a high level of tolerance toward gays even if it’s a conservative Catholic country, I decided to write to Mr. Fisher in order to explain the interesting parts of Philippine culture and its treatment of gays. I just sent it last night, so I don’t know if he’ll reply. Anyway, here are the parts of my e-mail (I kind of revised it a bit for this blog):

Remember that the Catholic religion wasn’t the original religion of the Filipinos. It was brought by the Spaniards and imposed on the people. Even if many consider themselves Catholic, there is a phenomenon called split-level Catholicism wherein the individual retains non-Catholic beliefs even if they identify themselves as Catholic. These pre-Spanish beliefs could be one of the reasons why there is tolerance when it comes to gays. Why is that so? Let me talk about the babaylans.

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Why isn’t Jesus the blessed virgin man?

Jesus never married, and if he followed the Catholic belief that you shouldn’t have sex outside marriage, then he must have been a virgin for life. So why isn’t he the blessed virgin man?

His mother Mary is praised to the heavens for bearing a child and yet she was “pure” because she was a virgin. Poor Joseph, and poor Mary too. Why did she have to stay a virgin just because she was the mother of god? Couldn’t she have enjoyed her human sexuality and still have been completely awesome? No, it’s because virginity is the source of her sainthood. Being the mother of god wasn’t enough, and thus she had to be a virgin forever.

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Forced to Sign a Virginity Pledge

The teacher of a Catholic school distributed the sheets of paper, and told a whole class of girls to sign below the line that said, “I will not have sex before I get married.”

I was in feakin’ high school then. I had no plans or even a budding interest to lose my virginity, but I didn’t want to sign the pledge.

Of course the pledge can’t stop you from having sex, but just the thought that all of us didn’t have a choice but to sign it, that it was so easy for the teacher to shove this option down our throats as though it was a pillar of truth and not an opinion of religion–it all just made me feel bad.

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Act of Grammatical Contrition

Forgive me, Grammar, for I have sinned. My sins are [insert your worst grammatical sin whether due to ignorance or due to mistakes because of rushed writing and other random chances of error].

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Lady Gaga and the Philippines: Art and the Influential Bruhaha

When I first heard that some religious group was protesting Lady Gaga’s concert, I was confused. I didn’t understand what the big deal was. Lady Gaga already had several concerts here in the Philippines, and no one seemed to mind. Now it has blown up into some big issue where politicians and other celebrities are accusing the singer for being influential (err…okaaayyy), for leading the youth astray, and for being evil incarnate. Have they ever really listened to Lady Gaga’s songs? People, it’s just pop songs. No big deal. There’s no need for any riot.

What’s the big deal, baby?

I loved Gaga’s Fame and Fame Monster albums, but I didn’t like Born This Way album that much. I liked the tracks “Born This Way,” “Judas,” and “You and I,” but I felt that the rest of the songs were overproduced.

I don’t understand why people are getting so worked up about “Judas.” “Judas” is an “I’m-in-love-with-a-bad-boy” +insert name “Judas” +insert some religious imagery=pop dance song. There’s no religious commentary at all. It’s just a pop song. If you don’t believe me, listen to it.

Now if you really want to look for “blasphemous” songs, you’re better off trying “Dear God” by XTC:

Assuming but not conceding that blasphemy is bad, “Judas” doesn’t even touch the amount of blasphemy that other artists have done.

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