Equality Philippines

Rowena Joy* (see pic above) is the title of a new mini-series being shown on GMA Network , a major TV station here. It is about a gay man, RJ who runs away from home after his homophobic father finds out about his sexual preference. RJ leaves for Japan to work and years later returns as a woman now called Rowena Joy. The show airs every Thursday night and so far it has had two episodes already. It has its ups and downs of course. While at the same time portraying Rowena Joy as a kindhearted soul, the show also perpetrates the biggest misconception about transsexual women: that they are gay men who desire to be women, playing on that transphobic concept of "women trapped in men's bodies." In this case, the woman Rowena Joy has been unleashed and yet still acts and thinks like a gay man. The show gives me a feeling of being spoken for. I feel like the show was put together by a bunch of gay men who then decided that this is how a transsexual is, feels and thinks. It leaves...

"Wonder Mom" is a show in ABS-CBN that caters to moms and moms-to-be. It gives useful and relevant tips mostly about raising a family, how to deal with kids, and, of course, how to be a "wonder mom." The host of the show is a "wonder mom" herself, Karen Davila, a renowned broadcast journalist here in the Philippines. They had a very interesting episode last Saturday. It's about those moms who have gay kids. And when I say kids, they're really just...kids. As young as 6 or 7 years old. They kinda have this small group that they call "Little Gay Sorority" or something like that. These kids had a choice to be guys. They're still young. But they chose to be true to themselves. Just like what I've always said before, being gay is a choice. And the kind of life that you will have as a gay person will also still always be your own choice and doing. It's pretty much a good episode. I was surprised how "out" those kids were e...