Letter to the Editor – A call for a lynching

These are increasingly dangerous times for those who want to be who they are, because intimations of murder seem to come so easy for some people.

Look at the world around you. Smell it, and feel the undercurrents of the everyday. Unless you live with your head buried under the proverbial sand, you know that there is a cultural war going on around us, the stake of which is our very soul. And yes, our necks.

It is a war that puts frailty in our freedom, the kind that tells us we have the right to live the life we believe we should live, if only to be true to the human beings beneath our skins.

But it is also about how much of this world imposes on us the frightening notion that there is no such freedom at all-an idea that makes many unfortunate people believe that some just have no right to exist. That it is actually better if there are laws to properly lynch them away out of existence.

Kill them, for example. Maim them away to oblivion.

If you are thinking, What a Hitlerian thought!, you are right. This is the very same intolerance that drove the engines of the Holocaust in World War II, a Nazi genocidal project that wiped away-through torture, hard labor, and the gas chamber-the so-called "undesirables" from the face of Europe.

But this essay is not about history or old wars. It is about the world we live now.

It is almost too ironic to consider this debate again in the heels of the releases of Ang Lee's new film Brokeback Mountain and Aureus Solito's equally well-received Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros, two movies that dare declare the humanity of gayness.

But some, of course, predictably steer along the ultra-conservative route (I call it the scourge of ignorant fundamentalism), and has virtually pronounced the end of the world via a Gay Apocalypse. Some have even said that the debate-and the two movies along with it-is not necessary. I've read more than few bloggers and some paper scribes talking about raising their eyebrows at the fact of having to mind another gay movie. "What's the big deal about the gay life anyway?" most of these people ask, often with a tint of the self-righteous, often with the deadpan tone of the bored and the miffed.

What's the big deal? I'll tell you what's the big deal. Here is a perfect example to illustrate the necessity of this debate. Last December, The Freeman-a major Cebuano daily-published an editorial in the heels of the Wesy Quisumbing controversy. (For those not in the know, Mr. Quisumbing, the transgendered son of a prominent Cebuano businessman, filed a harassment case against the father for being, above all things, an abusive homophobe.)

In any given day, an article that smacks of homophobia no longer raises my ire. But this was an editorial, not just some column by a hack journalist, in a paper that dares call itself "The Freeman". (How ironic.) If an editorial is supposed to be the very soul of a newspaper, what then can we make of this tirade?

The editorial reads: " Forget about the Quisumbings because that is their personal affair. But it is perhaps time that the issue of gay people and how society relates to them be given ample time for healthy debate"

It is virtually a call to lynch all gay men and women in the country. Prospects of genocide? Most certainly. But what frightens me most may be the silent knowledge that a lot of the people we know-perhaps even those whom we are familiar with intimately-will not hesitate to agree.

I sent the editorial to some of my writer/journalist friends in Manila and around the country. The essayist Lani Montreal emailed me this short note: "I couldn't finish reading the article. It made me real sick. But yes, I will finish reading it and maybe forward to Sunday Inquirer with my own comments. I just need to be in a different space right now."

Poet and gender theorist J. Neil C. Garcia wrote: "Thanks for letting me know about this bit of distressing news from Cebu. It's a pattern in our country, I guess: at least one or twice a year, something homophobic makes it to the media. I remember many years back in Manila we had our fill of gay-related news, and predictably enough, their accompanying stupid, bigoted, utterly disgusting commentaries. Our lives are fodder for such media carnivals, and while I used to think the best response was combative, now I'm of the opinion that ignoring the entire circus is the best course of action. But there are limits. Do keep me posted about any additional noise on this issue. If things get interesting-or worse-I suppose we in Manila can raise a heavenly stink and perhaps get some stupid reporters and columnists fired (wishful thinking.)"

And stink we will make.

Ian Rosales Casocot
Dumaguete City