Thursday, June 30, 2022

GETTING TO KNOW THE 3RD SEX

This article is dedicated to all LGBTQ+ in celebration of pride month.  For the hardwork and success that everyone has achieved, for the causes that all are standing for, and for the goodness we all people have done, this is just timely to share this during this month of rainbow color.

In celebration of colorful Pride Month in the Philippines, the come-out of a daughter to a senator father and famous celebrity-mother has earned different pros and cons reactions, as expected. The conventional religious mind and hard-line religious rights always reject this issue stating the scriptures as their basic weapons. While on the other corner, the oppositions’ main point on the arguments is the humanity.

Being 3rd sex nowadays in Philippines is something tolerated but not yet accepted. In general, Filipinos have long way to go in terms of understanding and accepting sexual orientation and gender identity.  People have to understand the difference between sexual preference, orientation, expression, and identity. People have to know the stereotypes of 3rd sex, as gay and lesbian are different from bisexual, or transgender is different from genderqueer.  That some lesbians and gays act like men and women, some of them don’t like cross-dresser, and some just feel men and women.  People have to realize all these, but more than these is understanding humanity.

The top claim of religious group is the belief that it’s only man and woman and so it is wrong to be in between or there is nothing in between male and female.  To oppose this, it must to realize that being 3rd sex is by birth and not by choice.  It is not choice to be in between because it is inborn.  It is not to choose to be male or be female because it is in between.  Because it’s by birth, not by choice, and the person has no choice to deny or oppose it.  The only choice is the way to live by it.

It's since birth.  If all children, from those who turned out to be notorious hoodlum and great machismo, romantic playboys, famous beauty queens, and up to you, if all of us have gone through a certain stage in our childhood lives where we felt our curiosity and interest in not supposed to feel and yet we have become as what we are now, then being 3rd sex is by choice.  When did all men and women realize they are straight men or women?  None; because straight men and women did not come to a point of getting confused of their self sexual-identity. If all people were got confused of self identity, then it is by choice.

Because how could you say a so pure toddler girl or boy who likes gun toy or doll respectively when no one taught it to liken on the first place?  Before they became aware, who taught them, at very young age, to feel thrill or to appreciate the appearance of their same-sex friends?  Who taught them of their posture and moves?  Nothing, because they're all natural and inborn, it is following their heart.  It is not an infectious disease that needs medical care and can be cured.  It is not evil that inevitably makes you sinner.  Above all, it is not about it must be men and women all alone, but it is about being human and humane.  Contradict them or correct them in a way you know but at the end of the day, you are just doing a temporary “solution” if you call it solution.

Being in 3rd sex is a long battle, since the dawn of time when men and women, animals and plants were pervading the earth.  Times have passed, long have been waited and fought for, so many things have happened, and so many indifference have been settled, yet it is long unending debate.  There is always contrast, and it is unending. Coming out from the closet is always becoming laughing stock, stigma, taboo, prejudice, and mockery from the judgmental people – this shows how unaccepted it is to be in the 3rd sex.  Can you blame others for choosing to remain silent amidst of pressure from people pushes them to come-out? 

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