Filipino scholar Manalansan critically examines the globalization of the gay rights movement, focusing on how the legacy of the Stonewall riots has been universalized as a defining moment of LGBTQ+ liberation. He argues that this dominant narrative, shaped by Western, particularly American, LGBTQ+ activism, imposes a monolithic understanding of “gay identity” that does not always align with the lived experiences and cultural realities of Filipino gay men. ## Introduction >In a world where borders are coming undone and “gay” ideologies, practices, and images are tracing the trajectories of modernity, the globalization of the gay movement has proven to be problematic. >I argue that the term “gay,” as a category of analysis (see Mohanty), is multiply inflected across various cultural and political locations even within a single group. (Martin F., 1995, p. 2) ## Whose Rebellion? - Events such as Stonewall 25 (1994) and the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) conference promote a transnational gay identity but often impose Western values on diverse cultural contexts. >“Gay” in this instance is synonymous with capitalist expansion. All same-sex phenomena are placed within a developmental and teleological matrix that ends with Western “gay” sexuality. Non-“gay” forms are seen as archeological artifacts to be reckoned with only when excavating the origins of pan-cultural/pan-global homosexuality. - The “Pink Book,” a survey on global LGBTQ+ rights, categorizes countries based on a Eurocentric idea of progress, often equating “modern” gay identity with Western-style visibility and activism. - These frameworks do not account for local gender and sexual categories, such as the Filipino **bakla**, which do not fit neatly into Western definitions of “gay.” >Various entries employ problematic words like “closet,” “homophobia,” “gay,” and “lesbian.” In addition to its simplistic description of social norms and attitudes, the survey imposes a modern, Eurocentric, and universal subjectivity. The presumptions behind the labeling of silence and secrecy as “closeted” and the tracing of the absence of explicitly gay-identified people in public arenas to “homophobia” are not interrogated. The survey ostensibly relates the “facts” in each country, hierarchizing them along the lines of Adam’s notion of "gay." ## "Gay" Liberation Philippines Style(s) >Homosexuality in the Philippines has long been seen as a “non-issue.” The bakla (a Tagalog term encompassing effeminacy, transvestism, and homosexuality) has been “allowed” a stage presence in various media. The bakla is depicted as a harmless and funny creature. - This section examines how three Filipino writers—Tony Perez, Jomar Fleras, and J. Neil Garcia—engage with the idea of gay liberation in the Philippines. ##### Tony Perez - Rejects the effeminate bakla, encourages masculinity, promotes respectability, and embraces the Western gay identity model. >1. The bakla needs to accept that he was born biologically male and that he should stop feminizing his features or behavior. >2. “Gays” are not cheap impersonators, but honorable laborers, soldiers, priests, professors, businessmen, and athletes. >3. The right partner for the bakla is another bakla, otherwise the relationship would be unequal. >4. Gay relationships will never be the same as heterosexual relationships, which have the blessings of church and state. >5. Being baklu is not a sickness one can recover from or that should be cured. (Perez xvii, my translation) ##### Jomar Fleras - Fleras aims to root gay activism in Filipino history but ultimately pushes for a Western-style LGBTQ+ movement. - Fleras, in _Reclaiming Our Historic Rights_, traces Filipino homosexuality back to pre-colonial shamans (babaylan) who cross-dressed and held respected positions. - The “feudal stereotype”: baklas are stuck in an outdated, hierarchical, and subservient social role, shaped by pre-modern, feudalistic social structures. >Fleras pathologizes the bakla, foretells the destruction of this “false” identity, and asserts that gay liberation consists of gays and lesbians “deconstructing and breaking away from the feudal stereotypes imposed upon them by society” ##### J. Neil Garcia - Garcia argues for a nuanced Filipino gay identity that respects both local traditions (like the bakla) and global influences, rather than forcing a single model of queerness. - Garcia analyzes a play and concludes that the bakla character is the one who achieves true self-acceptance and transcendence, as compared to the assimilationist masculine gay. ## Oppositions at the Sidelines This section presents ethnographic accounts of three Filipino gay immigrants in New York City and their perspectives on Stonewall, LGBTQ+ activism, and visibility. Despite their different backgrounds, they share a skeptical stance toward public activism and Western LGBTQ+ visibility politics, prioritizing dignity, privacy, and personal success over public participation. This section ultimately challenges the universalization of Stonewall as the defining queer experience, emphasizing that queerness exists in multiple forms beyond Western activism. ##### Mama Rene - A "pioneer" among Filipino gay men in NYC, about 50-60 years of age (wouldn't specify.) Emigrated to America in mid-1960s to attend NYU. - Was arrested at the famous Stonewall Riot. >Mama Rene just shrugged and said: “They say it is a historic event. I just thought it was funny. Do I feel like I made history? People always ask me that. I say no. I am a quiet man, just like how my mom raised me in the Philippines. With dignity.” >He insisted that he was not an "activist" like most of the white gay men he knew. ##### Ron and Rodel - Emigrated to the U.S. in the early 1980s. Now in their thirties. - Both see Pride parades and public activism as excessive and unnecessary. - Believes that visibility is not essential to self-acceptance, and prefer discretion. - Find the hypersexualized imagery of drag queens and muscle men alienating, rather than empowering. >Rodel: The march is on June 23. Are you going to watch or maybe join a float in drag? >Ron: Oh please, why would I do that? Beside, why do people do it? What do \[these gay men] have to prove? >Rodel: Yes that is true. It is too much. All these drag queens in floats and macho muscle men wearing almost nothing. It is like the carnival. Filipino gay men see identity as something you express naturally through behavior, rather than something you announce: >Filipino gay men argue that identities are not just proclaimed verbally, but are “felt” _(pakiramdaman)_ or intuited as well. The swardspeak expression _ladlad ng kapa_, which literally means unfurling the cape and has been translated as coming out,” reveals gay identity to be something “worn” and not necessarily “declared.” And it is this act of “wearing” identity that makes other public modes of gay identity articulation superfluous for many of my informants. Filipino immigrants avoid being visibly queer because they prioritize fitting in and stability in the face of multiple marginalization— economic, racial, queer, immigrant. ## Scattered Hegemonies and Multiple Rebellions - LGBTQ+ politics do not simply flow from the West to the rest of the world (center to periphery). - Each local culture has its own strategies for queer survival and resistance, shaped by political and social conditions. - Bakla and Western “gay” identity exist in tension but also in dialogue.