Fridae

then why does my entire family hate gays so much and have a bad attitude about them? why do some filipinos continue to treat them like circus clowns, honey?? not fair and not right .. filipinos still have a long way to go for total acceptance

You are Filipino and so you should have at least some understanding - much more than other outside observers. Try the Catholic Church's centuries old aversion to homosexuality for one. Aren't around 86% of your countrymen Catholic? Try your countrymen's love of the macho type male. Unless you fit that image you are not a man. At least that's what it was a couple of decades ago when I was visiting The Philippines regularly. Try the country's homophobic President for another.

If it's any consolation, many people in lots of Asian countries have somewhat similar views on the LGBT community - although I believe hardly any others actually consider us as being "circus clowns". That's vastly over the top. In your country no doubt it is because there is a stereotype of the queeny, outrageous gay ladyboy fed by endless TV programmes and movies.

You are who you are. Your profile says you are 46 and very much in the closet. That's your choice. But if everyone stays in the closet, surely nothing much is going to change. Consider the example of Taiwan to the north. Recent generations of Chinese were always assumed to be very homophobic. In Taiwan the gay movement only really developed a couple of decades or so ago with a small group of Taiwan citizens who sincerely believed that they could do something about rights for the LGBT community. That movement grew and grew and became grass roots. The fantastic Taipei Gay Pride Parade - 140,000 marchers last year - has always been a Parade of ordinary gay citizens, their boyfriends, parents, siblings, straight men and women with her young kids and many tourists. Hardly any are flamboyant queens. I suspect there are not enough Filipino men and women from all classes of society prepared to get together to develop and grow a similar grass roots movement. You cannot impose from above. You have to grow from within.

try telling all that bullshit to my overly conservative traditional monkey of a family, sir .. not to mention overbearing and perfectionistic .. and not to burst your bubble, but i happen to be filipino/american, NOT filipino, thankfully .. the same filipinos who still use the word "bakla", which is actually a cruel gay slur in their stupid language

Sorry, but you state in your profile you are Fillipino! Do you expect us to be mind-readers? Why not say Filipino-American?

They are your family. And you create your own reality. If you just sit back and accept the status quo, what do you expect is going to happen? You can moan about life and aspects of life, or you can do something about it.

I do agree with you about Tagalog - one of the ugliest spoken languages of all

well exactly sir, tagalog is quite an annoying language and i hate it too myself .. and i believe there is no option for "filipino/american" mixed ethnicity on this site, but if there is a workaround, let me know

My apologies, I was not aware there is no such description possible on this site. but surely it can be added to a profile?

Are both estimates from the same source, and have they been using the same estimation method though? The two numbers are too far apart. Either one is underestimated, or the other overestimated, or both.

I'm sorry I do not know to which numbers you are referring. Manila's estimate was 70,000 for this year's Pride Parade. I mentioned Taipei's Parade which indeed had almost 140,000 participants at the end of October last year.

Taipei's Parade is the largest in Asia (apart from Tel Aviv) and numbers have been growing annually. I have been at 7 tof the last 8 Taipei Parades and they are always a fantastic fun day with other events spread over the week-end. Attendance estimate at my first in 2011 was 50,000 participants. So it has been growly substantially every year with many guys flying in from all over Asia to join their Taiwanese LGBT colleagues. There are always groups from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan. I have even seen a group from Bhutan.