Pride vs. prejudice

Prince De Guzman

For the longest time, the belief has always been that malevolence and hate automatically mean sin; however, when the supposed ‘sin’ originates from homosexual love, the conviction differs, while the prejudice does not.

No matter how far we, the queer community, have progressed, we are still bound to both micro and macrodiscrimination. The recent online discourse regarding the lack of military recognition and underpromotion of men’s mental health that aims to undermine Pride Month is hypocritical, ignorant, and privileged. For the opposition, Pride promotes sin and will never equate to their self-proclaimed more serious problems that are overlooked, such as the military’s efforts and men’s mental states. Yet, for our community, Pride celebrates rights that were wrongfully stripped from us and commemorates the victims of decades of stigma and mass killings.

To be frank, Pride Month never degraded the essence of the aforementioned arguments in the first place, nor was it an intention to overlook them. Both celebrations can happen simultaneously, and credit will be given where it is due. However, the core issue is that these oppositions only have one motive: to belittle the struggle and significance of the queer community. I despise the insensitivity of these people to whine about the lack of visibility for the armed forces, even though military appreciation month occurred in May. When these hypocritical remarks about recognition inequality attempt to overshadow Pride Month, it is no longer preaching about visibility, but rather it voices selective care.

Sexuality is non-negotiable, nor something we can merely pinpoint as ‘normal’ or ‘gay’. It is innate, inherent, and a spectrum; however, the current society we have now has to learn this at the expense of deaths from segregation, massacres, and stigma. The harsh reality is that decades ago, no one was brave enough to learn who they really were and, let alone, acknowledge it. To the 20th-century queer community, it was better to live ‘straight’ than to die loving the same gender, which highlighted the internal struggle of homosexuals with aligning self-expression with traditional heterosexual norms.  

I can understand why. It is not an exaggeration to say that the world loathed us. In Europe, during the Holocaust, the Nazi regime criminalized same-sex relationships, then exterminated homosexuals in concentration camps, wherein the National Holocaust Museum reports over 5,000 – 15, 000 deaths. Moreover, in America, the 1950s Lavender Scare was a state-wide queer purge from office and military employment. Lastly, in the Philippines, the nation used to prohibit gay political parties in 2010 until the Supreme Court’s intervention. Up to the present day, there is still hostility directed toward homosexuals, with Brazil at the top of the documented trans fatality counts.

With this, I find it hard to believe why people still think queerness is undeserving of recognition, given the extreme stigma. Heterosexuals will never experience the sheer scale of discrimination the globe has against our community. While they were naturally given a comfortable place in society, homosexuals had to fight to be a part of it in the first place. They never knew what it felt like to wish they were straight and fear to love publicly. They never knew what it felt like to cry at night, thinking something internal was wrong with them. Hence, the online remarks are privileged to the point that they do not know what it takes to be queer. It is not just loving the same gender, but also living authentically, even when your existence is someone’s pet peeve. 

For years, queers have been dictated on the supposed right way of living. Heterosexuality is deeply embedded in social and religious norms that it persuades people to perceive homosexuality as a misguided mutation of love. Although Leviticus 20:13 states, “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination,” scholars concluded that its meaning changed as a result of translations.  Male (Zachar) is used by the Hebrews to describe a minor, and man (Ish) for adults. These specific usage of terms refers to the old greek custom on how a certain social class of men used to socialize, to party, and to initiate sexual relations with younger men. In a social aspect, pre-colonial Filipinos used to have asog, or men who transcended conservative gender roles, proving that the Philippines used to welcome and explore gender identities and sexual orientations.

Furthermore, queerness is proven through psycho-biological data and studies as it is a result of a complex interplay of gene factors; therefore, it is not accidental but intentional. By analyzing the DNA of half a million U.K. and U.S. citizens, the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT’s geneticist Andrea Ganna and her colleagues concluded genes account for 8% to 25% of same-sex behaviour. Homosexuality is meant to be present and meant to thrive. 

It took years of activism until society conformed and realized the varying human sexual orientations. What we need now is not a reversal of queer progress, but an acceptance that fellow countrymen can love whoever and be whoever. Prejudice toward pride still has not stopped today. Yet, I believe it is still empowering how we choose to wander the streets with courage and a new, profound love for self-identity. Hence, millions of LGBTQIA+ people raise the flag for not only themselves, but also those who fell victim to heartless massacres. 

Pride Month will never be stripped of its essence, nor attempt the same towards other celebrations or awareness-raising months. It is just that the queer community, in any way or form, will never be suppressed, ridiculed, and belittled once more; not again, not now, and definitely not ever. It is time to break the cycle of restrictions that conventional socioreligious norms have imposed on us, because in the end, homosexuality is present in over 1,500 animals, but homophobia only exists in one: humans. 

And while acceptance remains a luxury, somehow and some way, it gets cheaper annually. Now, the question is, can traditional heterosexual beliefs withstand a generation growing in inclusivity, equality, and acceptance? For anti-queer, it serves as a warning. For us, on the other hand, it serves as a hopeful inkling that pride will never face prejudice again.