This is part of #KaraniwangLGBT, which Outrage Magazine officially launched on July 26, 2015 to offer vignettes of LGBT people/living, particularly in the Philippines, to give so-called “everyday people” – in this case, the common LGBT 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.”
“Hindi na ako nakapag-aral; tumigil na (I haven’t been going to school; I’ve stopped schooling already),” Lady Angel said, adding, while smirking: “Alam mo na (You know how it is)…” to refer to her family being too poor to be able to go to school.
“But how do you sustain yourself?” she was asked.
“Andiyan pa naman ang tatay ko (My father is still there),” she said.
“And does he… approve of you being transgender?”
“Oo naman (Of course),” she said. “Sabi niya okay lang. Basta wala raw akong gagawin na magiging dahilan para bastusin ako ng mga tao (He said it’s okay. As long as I do not do something that will make people disrespect me).”
“So how do you make sure that doesn’t happen (that you remain beyond reproach)?”
“Hindi nanlalalaki (I don’t date boys)!” she laughed.
“So ladylike…”
“Charing (Kidding)!” she said, laughing harder.
“Is that why you were named ‘Lady Angel’?”
“Hindi ko alam bakit Angel tawag nila sa akin (I don’t even know why people started calling me ‘Angel’),” she said. “Dinagdag ko lang ang ‘Lady’. Taray, di ba (I just added the ‘Lady’ before my name. Now it’s fabulous, right)?”
"If someone asked you about me, about what I do for a living, it's to 'weave words'," says Kiki Tan, who has been a writer "for as long as I care to remember." With this, this one writes about... anything and everything.
