This is part of #KaraniwangLGBTQIA, which Outrage Magazine officially launched on July 26, 2015 to offer vignettes of LGBTQIA+ people/living, particularly in the Philippines, to give so-called “everyday people” – in this case, the common LGBTQIA+ people – that chance to share their stories.
As Outrage Magazine editor Michael David C. Tan says: “All our stories are valid – not just the stories of the ‘big shots’. And it’s high time we start telling all our stories.”
Brenda Quiñones, 70 years old from Muntinlupa City, knew at a young age that he’s gay; he was always more attracted to doing stuff stereotypically associated with girls.
“I knew I’m gay even as a child,” he said in the vernacular. “I liked playing with dolls, and I liked tinkering with dolls’ clothes.”
Brenda has six siblings; he’s the second to the last child. And his family accepted him.
“My parents may have thought to just let me be because I’ll always be like this,” he said.
But also, he said with a smile, when his mother was pregnant with him, she liked going to carnivals to watch performances of gay men.
“That may be why her child turned out gay,” he said.
Growing up gay
There was a time when Brenda said he didn’t like being identified as gay; he hated the taunting.
“They used to call me ‘Rose, Rose.’ I used to get angry; of course, I was just a child then,” Brenda said.
Brenda didn’t finish school, though he completed two years of college. Work-wise, he had done a lot, including “working as a beautician, make-up artist, I went to Japan where I worked as a choreographer as well as doing shows as an impersonator, and even won in GMA’s Gaya-Gaya as Liza Minelli.”
Different priorities
Brenda used to have jowa. But even now, his focus is (still) his career.
“At my age of 70, my God, I’d still look for men?” he said.
Being a senior gay man has its perks, Brenda said, including pension and ayuda for being old.
There are things that Brenda said he misses from the past, from playing as a child to joining beauty pageants and so on. But there aren’t regrets.
Facing the young
There are times when, for Brenda, discrimination of senior LGBTQIA+ people comes from younger LGBTQIA+ people. And this makes him defensive.
“Gays in the past were less vulgar; gays now are more vulgar, they openly flirt. Also, they ridicule us for being old. They don’t recognize that we may be old gay men but we have history; I worked as a make-up artist, as a beautician, and so on,” Brenda said.
Life lessons
Brenda thinks younger LGBTQIA+ people should also be practical.
“Change your way of seeing, you young LGBTQIA+ people. Study to be a beautician. At least you earn. Just one haircut you can buy rice and viand already,” he said. “Fix your life.”
And for those who continue to discriminate against LGBTQIA+ people, Brenda said it’s time to treat everyone as human beings. Else, he said, know that God watches.
“We’re also people, we get hurt,” Brenda said. “Don’t be rude to us. God doesn’t sleep. Abuse us, you’d get bad karma, your call.”
