Published January 26, 2001

Too bad I couldn't watch the whole Kapihan program that featured lesbians speaking their mind. Such a frank discussion is so rare that I stayed glued for the last ten minutes I managed to catch. It is not often that lesbians come out of the closet to publicly advocate their rights. Male homosexuals have long since "outed" themselves and have, in fact, claimed acceptance in Philippine society. Others even say male gays (Is that an oxymoron there?) have achieved more notoriety than just acceptance. They flaunt this before "normal" society with their beauty pageants and at times comic antics.

Lesbians, on the other hand, have largely been a quiet lot, their individual members (?) known to their communities but hardly ever credited for their achievements as attributable to their sexuality. This reminds of a spinster teacher who went about educating generations of students with a meticulous professionalism. Everybody knew her girlfriend but no one associated her preference of company with her performance in the classroom. It was like her after-school life was entirely separate. That was how it was until her retirement. And yet, even as she returned to an entirely private life, her former students would always ask about whether she and her companion remained devoted to each other. But, there was never an unkind word said about the relationship. If anything, there was more of admiration over the unbroken bond.

She has since moved on to the other world but we, her former wards, will perhaps forever look kindly on the relationship she maintained so steadfastly, even as we know we all ended up the better for having been schooled by her.

Which brings this observer to wondering about the resentment of the lesbians in the TV program revealed. I had not thought the discrimination against them has been, and continues to be so great. "We are not supposed to exist. We are supposed to be an abnormal creation," one of them bewailed. I would suppose she speaks from painful experience. Religion, she said, has a lot to do with the violation of their human rights.

Not for me here to argue favorably or against that. But, it does seem to me that any deviation from the norm will always find detractors. Like the proverbial nail that sticks out, it will be hammered down. Then again, how is it that male homosexuals, whether active or passive, have surfaced all over and are even given their niches where they seem to excel as a third sex. They do well where they do because of their sexuality, the thinking seems to go.

But, come to think of it. Maybe the difference is that the female gays do as well, perhaps even better, as everybody else in any field, not confined to fields assigned to them to succeed in.

The difference in treatment might also be simply because it is only recently, in the Philippines, that is, that they have come out of the closet. And having done so, it might just be a matter of time before they finally come to that situation where they - or we - overcome social prejudice.

The debate over whether lesbianism, or homosexuality itself, is normal or not will not end of course. Neither will there be a lack of homophobes who will maltreat those who they believe are abnormal.

Myself? Truth is that I've never really put too much thought to the matter. I've always interacted with gays in the same manner I do with the next body around. In truth, I've always seen them as just as human as everyone else and are thus entitled to the same humanity that whoever deserves.

But, now that lesbians have come out to overcome the discrimination against them, I'd say I will be an interested observer of what happens next. One thing sure is that the succeeding months or years to follow will result, at the least, in understanding if not full acceptance.

It's good that lesbians have "outed." It's not fun living in a closet.