Op-Ed

You are gay, and it’s okay!

Contributing writer Rod pens an open letter after Ansel Beluso – who claims to be a former practicing homosexual now married and a father to three boys, and who believes that being LGBT should be corrected – delivered a speech to oppose the Anti-Discrimination Bill.

Contributing Writer

Published

Mar 3, 2015

LGBT Filipinos are confronted by so-called Bible-bashers who believe that being 'Christian' means spreading hatred directed against minorities like LGBT people.

TO ALL WHO CARE TO KNOW:

My name is Rod.

I am 50 years old. I am in a 22 year relationship with my partner Sam.

I am gay. It is not a choice. It is not a lifestyle. It is NATURAL.

I am gay and I have a God – a merciful, compassionate and loving God. His name is Jesus Christ.

I am gay and I am not promiscuous. I haven’t had sex with 16 men and with brothers pimped by their father. I have a loving sex relationship with my partner. Oh, I do fall once in a while, as a human being – not because I am gay.

I am gay. I am not sick. The World Health Organization (WHO) has stricken out homosexuality in 1973 as a mental illness in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association (APA).

The United Nations (UN) statement on LGBT rights includes a condemnation of violence, harassment, discrimination, exclusion, stigmatization, and prejudice based on sexual orientation and gender identity that undermine personal integrity and dignity. It also includes condemnation of killings and executions, torture, arbitrary arrest, and deprivation of economic, social, and cultural rights on those grounds.

Thank you to the WHO and UN for saying that I am not sick even if they don’t know me. Although I have enough common sense to know what is sick and what is not.

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I am gay. And I respect women.

I am gay and I am happy. But this is not just about me. I have a decent job in a bank. I work hard. But I know that millions of young LGBT people are not allowed to optimize their potentials because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. I know of young gays and lesbians who are not allowed to study and who continue to be barred in their schools of choice. I know of transgender women are barred from public establishments. I know of LGBT people who are refused employment based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. I know of lesbians in the south who are forced to be “raped” by their parents as a form of “curative therapy” so that they are converted to heterosexuality. I even know of a friend who was brutally murdered because he was gay. And maybe you heard of the news of a young gay boy who was doused with boiling water by his father out of anger and frustration because he wanted his gay son’s gender identity.

I am gay and happy – but this is not about me.

I have the choice to just keep silent in the comforts of my life and home but this doesn’t make it right.

I want every young gay person out there to know that he/she is okay.

I am gay and I am a proud child of God.

I am gay and you too can be proud.

I want young gay persons to know that no one has the right to bully or discriminate them.

I am gay and suicide is not an option.

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DISCRIMINATION in all of its forms must stop!

I am gay and I am for the passage of the anti-discrimination bill that has languished in Congress for the past 15 years.

I am gay and this is the least that I can do for my brothers and sisters.

I am gay and I say, I AM NORMAL!