At around 4:00AM one weekday a few years back, I received a call from a gay acquaintance who used to live in a formalized informal settlers’ area in Mandaluyong City.
“Tulungan mo ako (Help me),” he said, panic in his voice as he said he was being detained in the barangay. “Hinuli ako. Dahil lang bakla ako (They accosted me. Just because I’m gay). This is discrimination.”
Though he begged for me to go to where he was and talk to the barangay people, I didn’t; I was not the right person, after all. So I – instead – contacted a lesbian friend (who works for a human rights agency), and asked how we can help.
She called him. They chatted. Then she called me back. She complained to me; that he didn’t seem honest, and wasn’t telling the whole story. But she sort of got the gist of what’s happening – i.e. he had sex with a minor (14-year-old boy), who – while leaving the gay guy’s house, was seen by his mother, who then angrily involved the barangay officials, who called people from DSWD and the PNP.
The gay acquaintance wasn’t apologetic; instead, he saw what happened as an “attack” on him for being gay. “Discrimination!” was his chosen battle cry… even though what he did (i.e. sexually engaging with a minor) was wrong, period.
Eto na nga: Hindi nag-iisa ang baklang gaya ng taga-Mandaluyong: Andaming members of the LGBTQIA community who flaunt their sexual engagement with minors, just as there are too many who enable (or turn the blind eye to) these abusers.
You can argue that the number may NOT be that high. But then, with abuses, one is already too many.
Case in point: There are actually numerous pages in Facebook (among others) that “specialize” in the pimping of the young. Though in truth, “special” pages aren’t needed; the selling and buying of minors’ bodies are done even in “mainstream” pages.
It’s still shocking when 16- or 17-year-old boys “sell” themselves. Inutil ang gobyerno, so na-no-normalize din ito. But shocking din ang number ng mga baklang “buyers”. Alam na ngang mali eh, ginagawa pa rin.
As FYI:
- Republic Act (RA) No. 11648, signed by Rodrigo Duterte in 2022, amended RA 3815 (Revised Penal Code) and RA 7610 (Special Protection of Children against Abuse, Exploitation, and Discrimination Act).
- Under the new law, rape is committed “when the offended party is under 16 years of age” or has mental issues.
- There shall be no criminal liability when the age difference between the parties is not more than three years.
- There is liability if the victim is under 13 years of age.
- Children who indulge in sexual intercourse or lascivious conduct for money, profit, or any other consideration “are deemed to be children exploited in prostitution and other sexual abuse.”
LGBTQIA people know what it feels like to be abused (or at least for many of us). So we should be protecting those who get abused… like these minors. Instead, too many choose to be abusers; and even more choose not to hold these abusers responsible (e.g. none of the admins of these FB pages remove related posts, and when I reported to Meta before, I received a message that such posts do not go against “community standards”).
Ang daming salot, seriously. Galing mismo sa loob ng LGBTQIA community.
What happened to that gay acquaintance? He claimed the mother of the boy he had sex with just wanted to extort stuff from him – e.g. she, supposedly, said she’d take back the case she filed if he provided them supplies so they can open a sari-sari store.
I am not sure if a “deal” was reached, but I heard he eventually left that barangay to move to some condo not too far from that place. But I heard, too, of how – this time around – he started having sex with hetero-identifying men he initiated into meth use. While high, he made them suck him; his “ultimate power trip”.
Because abuses take many forms. And sadly, too many gay and bisexual men are abusers themselves.
