Straight Talk

You have to admire Isagani Cruz for being so bold despite his being paranoid and contemptuous, particularly in his PDI column yesterday entitled, "Don we now our gay apparel." I feel bad for his gay friends, assuming he has any.

I won't go into the details of what he wrote, since my gay and straight friends have already dismissed Cruz as an angry old-timer who's viewpoints are stuck in the 1930s. As for me, he's simply making an opinion. An arrogant opinion, yes, but that's why he's a columnist--he gets paid to cook up occassional drivel.

I honestly don't care about him taking stabs at gay people, particularly at the publicly loud and crass ones. Because, indeed, there are some members of the homosexual communty (like some of their heterosexual counterparts) who choose to attract attention in a crowd by being less than appropriate in their speech and manner and need to be a little more considerate in public. He even makes a disclaimer in favor of those who conduct themselves in a "decorous manner", even issuing an apology to those he respects and admires. But the end of his write up defeats his effort, to wit:

"Must we allow homosexuality to march unobstructed until we are converted into a nation of sexless persons without the virility of males and the grace of females but only an insipid mix of these diluted virtues? Let us be warned against the gay population, which is per se a compromise between the strong and the weak and therefore only somewhat and not the absolute of either of the two qualities."

Thus, he steps beyond the limits of propriety by emphatically suggesting that homosexuals, including those he respects and admires, are 1) inferior citizens and 2) a threat. Not for economic level or educational attainment, but for the simple reason of who they are. This is a sweeping bigoted statement that the PDI shouldn't have allowed published.

He says that in the seventies his sons studied in a school where all students were "certifiably masculine," like they had a board exam for that. (He uses the word "macho" a few times.) Cruz is in for a surprise--being masculine doesn't equate to being straight.

ADDENDUM: Following is my letter to the Philippine Daily Inquirer...my first letter to them. :-D

To issue a sweeping statement of opinion under responsible journalism, I believe, requires thorough knowledge of the issue at hand. Unfortunately, Isagani Cruz doesn't know--or even cares to know--the spectrum of the homosexual experience when he wrote "Don we now our gay apparel." And I, like many others, wonder how the PDI could allow this major lapse of responsibility to pass. Maybe the PDI dislikes Cruz so much that it published his piece so he could take a proper beating.

From what facts did he base his statement that homosexuals are "pansies" with "insipid virtues?" Why does he call the increase in the number of homosexuals "alarming?" Where is his thesis coming from? Fear? Disgust? A scarred past?

Again, cite the facts from which opinions are based. Otherwise, "Separate Opinion" will simply be separate from reality, and be better off in a trashy tabloid than a prestigious publication like the PDI.

Comments

Rickey said…
OMG - Thanks for this! What a bigot.
jactinglim said…
thanks for writing to PDI :) a broadsheet of their caliber should never have let such a horrible piece be published there.
Vin said…
Hi Carl! It's been a while. :)

Oliver texted me about this. It's an incredibly bigoted and narrow minded view.
I wanted to laugh it off but then he reaches so many readers, it's time he was held accountable for the things he writes.
Your reaction letter was well written, I hope PDI decides to print it and others like it in the interest of fairness. Just because someone has a pulpit to spout his views and opinions doesn't mean he can say whatever he wants with impunity.
decorator said…
oh well, bigots like them will continue to surface... just like roaches going into the light when sprayed by bygon...

worse, we are not doing anything... at least not yet. maybe we should to make the threat hes saying true.

then again--not. that will be doing him a great favor.
juOn said…
Go Carlo. Isagani Cruz used to be secretary of the Department of Education. Thank heavens he resigned!
vincedejesus said…
He should be neutered so he can't reproduce and spread his "macho" genes anymore.

I pity the family who shares a home with him. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Kawawa naman sila...

You see, cavemen still exist. Only now they have degrees and live in big houses built using our tax money.
Anonymous said…
Thanks, guys, for your comments. :)

rickey, jac, tobie... basta iniisip ko na lang na hate ng PDI si Cruz kaya nila na-publish 'yon. Nag-react na nga si Manuel Quezon III sa kolum niya.

vin! you dropped by daw sa opis! Good luck sa proposal mo!

decorator... ipaubaya na lang natin kay carmi martin. hwek hwek.

juon... kaya ba palpak ang DepEd noon?

vince... buti pa ang mga cavemen, yumayaman.
vincedejesus said…
Diyos ko, mayaman nga, jologs naman ang puso! Okay na tayo, mayaman sa friends :)

I read the article of Manuel Quezon III. Naunahan niya ako. He he he.

Kita tayo soon. Nakaburn na ang cd ng zsazsa zaturnnah zongs for the movie. Maaaliw ka... sana!!!
"Go Carlo. Isagani Cruz used to be secretary of the Department of Education. Thank heavens he resigned!"

Correction lang, Juon.

There are two Isagani Cruzes, and you are mistaking one for the other.

One is former Philippine DepEd undersecretary Isagani R. Cruz who is now with De La Salle University.
The other, of course, is the now controversial former SC Justice Isagani A. Cruz.

As to DepEd being palpak then, maybe not.:) USec Cruz served under the late Sec. Raul Roco. During their tenure, DepEd made huge turnaround, reputationwise, especially in eliminating corruption that attended the textbooks procurement. You will recall a relative of then President Estrada being involved in this scam.

It's the DepEd leadership today that I am not sure about.
Anonymous said…
from www.lagablab.wordpress.com

AN OPEN LETTER TO MR. ISAGANI CRUZ

We, members of the Lesbian and Gay Legislative Advocacy Network Philippines (LAGABLAB-Pilipinas), wishes to thank Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Isagani Cruz for giving us yet another proof that homophobia still exists in our society today. His column (”Don we now our gay apparel, August 12, 2006, Page A10) tells us that, indeed, a law penalizing discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBTs) should be urgently enacted by Congress.

His stark hatred against homosexuals represents a common belief system that continues to deepen the prejudice that the LGBT community encounters. Mr. Isagani Cruz fails to see that such display of bigotry is easily translated into acts that concretely violate human rights and fundamental freedoms, values whose universality and primacy a former Supreme Court justice should have been able to grasp and uphold. After all, the Supreme Court as an institution has a long tradition of defending civil liberties and human rights. It is therefore ironic that one of its former justices finds it easy to dehumanize us, target us for exclusion, and deny us the right to celebrate our diversity and dignity.

He claims that his scathing homophobia is only reserved to homosexuals who do not conduct themselves decorously. However, his sense of propriety, going by his narrow-minded perspective, means conforming to the destructive boundaries and restrictive stereotypes that our conservative society has established for LGBTs. It means tolerating biased labor policies and practices that act like a glass ceiling that blocks our productivity, or enduring verbal and physical abuses from our own family members or from our immediate community. Mr. Cruz wants us to believe that the fate of homosexuals who openly claim their space in our society as equal members of the human family is a lifetime of humiliation and discrimination. Unless we conform to the whims of people like Mr. Cruz, we should willingly accept that fate. To him, only when we are invisible or servile to what he claims to be the “privileged sex” can we expect acceptance from our society.

Mr. Cruz should understand that human dignity has no sexual orientation or gender identity. Homosexuality is hardly a dilution of the male and female sexes, and femininity and womanhood, upon which equal scorn and prejudice have been heaped by Mr. Cruz, are not synonymous to weakness. The ‘third sex’ that he ridicules does not exist at all, since we are all equal in dignity and respect, as affirmed by our Constitution, our laws, and the international agreements on equality and human rights that the Philippines signed.

The Filipino LGBT community will continue to march – in sagalas and during the annual Pride parade – because we do not take bigotry sitting down. The likes of Mr. Cruz can’t – and we will not let them – push the Filipino LGBT community back to invisibility.
juOn said…
I stand corrected. Thanks Willy. :-)
Anonymous said…
This is a good time to talk to the CBCP (and the Iglesia ni Kristo and the Council of Churches).
Anonymous said…
A man named Vinny dies and goes to hell.

The Devil says to him "Hey Vinny we've been waitin for ya!".

Vinny smiles and walks with the Devil and the Devil says "I gotta ask you a couple questions, do you like to smoke?" Vinny answers "Ya, I love to smoke." The Devil says "Good you'll like Mondays we smoke everything cigarettes, cigars, weed everything."

"Now do you like to drink?" Then Vinny says "Of course I love to drink." The Devil replies "Great we drink everything on Tuesdays you will fit in great."

"Do you like to have sex?" Vinny says "Hell ya sex is the best." The Devil smiles and replies "We have sex with every type of woman you could think of on Wednesdays."

And the Devil finally says "Now, are you gay?" Vinny frowns and answers "NO WAY, MAN!! I'm not gay! And the Devil looks down and finishes "Your gonna hate Thursdays... and Fridays... and Saturdays..."
Anonymous said…
A man named Vinny dies and goes to hell.

The Devil says to him "Hey Vinny we've been waitin for ya!".

Vinny smiles and walks with the Devil and the Devil says "I gotta ask you a couple questions, do you like to smoke?" Vinny answers "Ya, I love to smoke." The Devil says "Good you'll like Mondays we smoke everything cigarettes, cigars, weed everything."

"Now do you like to drink?" Then Vinny says "Of course I love to drink." The Devil replies "Great we drink everything on Tuesdays you will fit in great."

"Do you like to have sex?" Vinny says "Hell ya sex is the best." The Devil smiles and replies "We have sex with every type of woman you could think of on Wednesdays."

And the Devil finally says "Now, are you gay?" Vinny frowns and answers "NO WAY, MAN!! I'm not gay! And the Devil looks down and finishes "Your gonna hate Thursdays... and Fridays... and Saturdays..."

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