WITHOUT a doubt, I am the gayest, and the most gay, writer you can find writing in the Ilonggo newspapers today.
In fact, I have been in the last 21 years.
In fact, I have been the gayest in the long history of Ilonggo journalism.
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I do not mean that I am the most effeminate.
Or the most sexually perverse.
Or the most glamorous.
Or the most active in the gay rights movement.
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I only mean that I am the most open.
The most vocal.
The most uncloseted.
The most publicized.
The most written about.
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Although I have never been involved in any sex scandal in Iloilo (I have never been involved in any sex scandal, period!), except perhaps for my nude protests and theatrical nudities (if you want to consider these sex scandals), I am perhaps the most popular openly gay Ilonggo in the newspapers.
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Sure, there are many gay writers in the Ilonggo newspapers; but they do not write as openly gay.
If at all, they are constipatedly closeted.
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I’ve never really blurted out in the newspapers that I am gay until I was married to another gay man in 2008.
But since I started writing for the newspapers in 2000, I have dropped plenty of hints at my gayness.
I mean, if you still have any doubts that my writings are flamingly gay even at the start of my career, you really have a poor gaydar.
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By coming out gay after my same-sex marriage with a gay American in California in 2008, I have unwittingly become an Ilonggo gay icon.
Although, I suspect that even as I started the Ilonggo sexual revolution via my sex advice columns in 2000, I have already marked myself as the Ilonggo gay celebrity (and Ilonggo gay celebrity writer) to watch.
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In truth, I do not want to be identified as a gay writer.
I’m just a writer who happens to be gay.
And I just happened to write bravely about gay stuff, among many other things.
And I just have no problem telling the world via the newspapers about my life as a gay man:
Evolving even while in the closet since 2000, and coming out (and coming of age) in 2008.
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Marrying another gay man and announcing it in the Ilonggo newspapers is the gayest thing an Ilonggo gay guy can do.
And I did it first in 2008.
It was a big step for me then.
And I’m sure it was a big step also for the whole gaymankind in Iloilo, and the Western Visayas.
And now, I am prouder than ever that I did it.
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I support gay rights as I support children’s rights and women’s rights, and all sorts of human rights.
But I don’t want to be in the forefront of the gay movement in Iloilo.
I was once invited to join the first gay pride parade in Iloilo City.
But because it didn’t involve a flamboyant float for me, I bowed out.
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If I’m not going to be the biggest queen of the festivities, I’m not lending my celebrity to the event.
I know it sounds selfish now, but maybe it was my way of setting my terms and limits for my involvement in the Ilonggo gay pride movement.
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I want to be involved in the gay pride movement as a writer.
An educator, if you please.
Do I want to be a clown in a parade?
Only in my own clown terms!
You will not find me in a gay pride parade walking along with other LGBTQIA.
If I go, I swear I will be on a float that would wow and amaze even the straightest of the heterosexuals.
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What does it mean for me to be a gay icon?
Simply to be as gay and witty as Oscar Wilde.
To be as unifying as Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli.
To be as iconic as Madonna or Lady Gaga.
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Sadly, I feel there is an unfortunate gay image in the Philippines.
There’s the Filipino-defining Facifica Falayfay.
And there’s the desperate gay comedians in mainstream media.
In real life, there’s the horny gay teacher, the metrosexual-looking call center agent, the closeted doctors, and everyone else who is defined by their horniness and sexual desires.
I do not identify with any of these.
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I am gay in my own terms.
I’m rich, smart, wise, and powerful.
Despite my openness in the newspaper, I am still largely mysterious as a gay man.
I mean, it is only of late that people realized that I’m largely a top.
And while I am now open to the idea of bottoming (not that I haven’t done it), we can never really know for sure until I find someone worth to bend over about./PN
