a season for rebirth

Love anywhere, anytime, even when it appears unnecessary or unwanted. Laugh without provocation, and face the sun with with a smile. When traveling to meet your loved ones, always remember that traffic does not diminish one’s happiness, or one’s capacity to provide happiness. Help someone in need, a stranger or a friend, or as poet advised, if you are someone in need, cry for help.

Dance. Dance to any music, because dancing discriminates no tune. Dance in silence, the music in one’s head is like a prayer.

Give someone a ticket or a book: to get lost in strange cities or inside one’s head puts one’s life in the perspective of a child.

When mad, sing. Air gave birth to forgiveness, share it thru a song. Laugh at your own mistakes. If you find that difficult, sing to yourself. Learn to be forgiving. Forgive yourself.

Today is a good day. With no agenda or ideology, I wish you a rebirth of the senses, a meaningful pause to discover the things that we truly love.

the 2006 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Pride March

We had the annual LGBT Pride March last Saturday, December 9, 2006, at Manila City, and as usual, it was pretty tiring. The route was quite long, and we couldn’t really complain because it was based on an agreement with Manila’s Traffic Bureau. During the march itself, however, traffic policemen attempted to alter the route several times, and they were scared that we would do something political. The activist in me wanted to tell them that marching itself is political: we are asserting our rights and we want to offer a positive visibility of the LGBT community.

I was appalled by their paranoia. After defying their “proposal” that we stick to the obscure side streets of Malate, they tried to block us from marching along Roxas Blvd. They actually deployed riot policemen – they have no respect for beauty queens – but we prevailed, and they allowed us to make a turn in Pedro Gil and march along Roxas Blvd. I had to tell them several times that we secured a permit, and the City Hall approved our route. It took me several days of traveling to and from Manila City, with its polluted streets and noxious bureaucrats, to secure that permit, even though I wanted to scream at them and tell them that the law requiring a permit is a relic from the days of the dictatorship.

But nothing’s going to rain on our parade. My personal gratitude to those who helped organizing the march. Thanks to my office, too, for understanding why I had to take part in organizing the event, especially for Risa, who spoke during the program and brought her kids to march with us.

See you again next year.

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Correction: I never offered my eggs to the nuns of Santa Clara. No way.

Don’t Con Ass!

Another long day in this madhouse. The House majority decided to ram Charter Change down our collective throats through the convening of a Constituent Assembly. This is not exactly the first time that our honorable representatives railroaded questionable and unpopular legislative measures, but the Constituent Assembly is the height of the Lower House’s arrogance and corruption.