Pride (a deeper love)

Pride (a deeper love) - C+C Music Factory

The cover of the December issue of The Advocate, the US-based LGBT magazine, identifies the struggle for gay rights as the last great civil rights struggle. I’m thinking it’s probably like comparing it to space, the final frontier, when it came to civil rights advocacy. I’m probably oversimplifying the implication but this is how the phrase struck me. Of course, there is still a whole gamut of social ills that are prevalent in this world but, hey, I’m pretty sure they did this with good reason. The fight for LGBT rights is a raging battle in the US. California-based activities are still reeling from their defeat on Proposition 8. But people are hopeful that the Obama presidency will be more sensitive to the LGBT community.

Many many miles away in the Philippines, the LGBT community is holding its annual pride march on Saturday, December 6. The call of this year’s celebration is Live, Love and Unite for Pride. In true manifestation of unity, simultaneous marches will be held in Luzon (Manila), Visayas (Cebu), and Mindanao (Lanao). Truly historic.

I attended my first pride march in 1996. But, because I wasn’t out yet to my family, I opted to stay as a spectator of the parade. A year later, I covered the pride march as a reporter for a news magazine show. This was the excuse I gave my mother for being there in the event. But after covering the event, and rushing back to the studio to edit the story for airing the next day, as I was having an exceptionally delicious breakfast, I admitted to my mother that I am gay. I didn’t blurt it out; I just said yes when she asked. This story is a bit funny; I will tell it at another time.

After that, attending the suceeding pride marches have been easy for me. I attended these events with my boyfriend(s) and I had fun. I continually managed to evade being interviewed by news report because they normally chased those who were in costume, which I never did. Drag was something I explored here in Cambodia.

I wish I had all the photos I took but I can only share a couple of them. The previous pride marches used to be held in June, as it was patterned after the American pride march, which celebrated the anniversary of the Stonewall uprising of 1969. But it was moved to December, partly due to the weather. June is the middle of the rainy season in the Philippines. Whereas December is a cool and dry month.

This year, I’ve been hearing a lot (and reading a lot too) about the pride march. I can only wish that I was there to celebrate with my brothers and sisters in celebrating gay pride. And reminding ourselves and others that the struggle is still on-going. That the journey is still long, and taxing. But together, it can be completed.

Where are you Christmas

Where Are You Christmas - Faith Hill

It’s that time of the year again. There is a persistent cold front that is giving overcast days and nippy nights here in Phnom Penh. The chill reminds me that Christmas is just around the corner. And that I needed to make and send out my own Christmas card.

I have written in a previous post how I’d been making my own Christmas cards since 2004. How I came to using my images in drag and designing cards around these images. The design of my cards are not conventional. I mean, not many people use cowboy and disco motifs on Christmas cards. Heck, except for a few specialty cards, you’d rarely find a drag queen in a Christmas card.

It took me longer to come up with a design. I guess I over-thought it, so I stopped working on it and did many other things. Until the inspiration came. I wouldn’t want to pre-empt it so I’m showing it now. I’ll tell you something about it later.

The inspiration for the design, obviously, was the environment. This year, there have been a profusion of campaigns and events on the environment: concerts around the world for the planet, saving the ice shelf, reversing global warming, reducing our carbon footprints, and so on. So I thought, why not use this motif on a Christmas card? Green, after all, is also one of the colors of Christmas. Think Poison Ivy meets The Grinch. The title of this post is, befittingly, the theme song of that Grinch film with Jim Carrey.

Also, another factor (but not the deciding one) is the Philippines’ victory in the Miss Earth pageant. Her now-famous quote, which had thankfully eclipsed that idiotic rambling of another beauty queen in another pageant, was certainly a breath of fresh air, in my humble opinion.

I also said in that previous post that I was thinking of not using an image of me in drag in this year’s card but I eventually decided against it. After all, as a guy, I am hardly an interesting subject or material for any card. Although technically, this isn’t me in drag. I had no make-up here; it was just a wig, really. And an electric fan.

So there, I hope you enjoyed viewing my Christmas card. And I hope the joy of the holiday season grows on all of us!

Never is a promise

Never is a Promise - Fiona Apple

Today is World AIDS Day. 2008 is also the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. Not the anniversary of the AIDS epidemic, but the observance of a day when people living with HIV/AIDS, those working in the field of AIDS, and other stakeholders around the world come together to commemorate and to remind themselves that there is much more to be done in addressing this epidemic.

World AIDS Day, or WAD, in Cambodia is a particularly huge event. Many things happen in Phnom Penh and in the provinces. It is, in fact, a non-working holiday here–one of the UN holidays that are considered as non-working holidays here (the others are International Women’s Day and Human Rights Day, among others). This year, I am not involved in any of the WAD celebrations in Phnom Penh. Aside from this blog, I have no other contribution to the ‘celebration’.

This year’s theme is ‘Lead, Empower, Deliver’, which is closely related to last year’s theme, leadership. According to the UNAIDS website, designating leadership as the theme provides an opportunity to both highlight political leadership and celebrate leadership that has been witnessed at all levels of society. In his official message, out-going UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot states that, “Presidents and prime ministers, doctors and lawyers, scientists and schoolteachers, chiefexecutives and trade union leaders, religious groups and communities, and critically people living with HIV, are coming together in a brilliant coalition that has proved that, with clear targets and strong commitment, we can move mountains”.

He is also quick to point out that ‘many more mountains remain to be moved’. HIV/AIDS programmes around the world is affected by the on-going gloabl economic and financial crisis. Expansion of HIV prevention and treatment is critical, especially in the so-called ‘low and slow epidemic’ countries like the Philippines. The effects of gender inequality and weak health and social systems in delivering health information and services to those who need it continues to resonate in many places.

These are just one of the things that are in the minds of those who are infected and affected by the AIDS epidemic. Cambodia’s efforts have been commendable for reversing a very high prevalence rate but these gains will be overshadowed if it fails to respond to the rapidly changing trends of HIV infection among emergingpopulation groups. While new interventions are promising, Cambodia’s HIV/AIDS programming deserves a re-boot, so to speak.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Philippines has long baffled epidemiologists and public health practitioners. In the last 20 years, incidence has remained low and the increase in the infected has been slow. All the signs point in the direction of a full-blown epidemic, the likes of which was seen in Thailand: multiple sex partners, a thriving sex industry, almost non-existent condom use, high incidence of sexually transmitted infections like syphilis, and so on. But no significant change occurred, until recently.

Apparently, the Philippine Department of Health is ‘grappling with the problem of declaring an HIV epidemic among MSM (males-who have-sex-with-males)’. This article is the first ‘official’ declaration/recognition of the rise of HIV related to male same-sex behaviour. I am also glad that the DoH was enlightened enough not to go the way of Singapore, whose health minister blamed all MSM for his country’s HIV epidemic. This is, however, just the tip of the iceberg. The Philippine HIV epidemic will prove to be as complex as the epidemics in other countries like Cambodia, requiring an equally complex response.

NGOs in the Philippines implementing HIV prevention and treatment have been constrained by a lack of available funds because of this ‘low-and-slow’ status. Who knows, if the spotlight is focused on the Philippine HIV epidemic, maybe more funds for programmes will become more available.

But if Cambodia was able to deal with its HIV epidemic, I am confident that the Philippines can as well. Cambodia, in fact, has benefited from programs developed in the Philippines. Its AIDS law is modeled after the AIDS law in the Philippines. Not to mention the human resources of Filipino consultants who are currently working in Cambodia in the AIDS field (myself included).

However, critical in the response to HIV is the leadership. Cambodia is fortunate to have a leadership that do not pander to the whims of a church that vociferously resists the promotion of sexual health. Of course, this doesn’t mean that they (Cambodia’s leaders) do not pander to other influencers. This is totally a different story. But when it comes to HIV programming, I think Cambodia is more open compared to the Philippines.

I am, however, confident that this will also change in the near future.