It was never easy, maybe for some lucky ones, but not with how I experienced it.
With the society, having the Filipino culture together with the Catholic beliefs, I could say that what made it hard to live as a homosexual was because the "discrimination" all started, sadly, within my own family.
Around the age of 6-10, that time when you could probably say you were able to save some details on your memory as you try to recall things when you are much older, those times when I started making friends, going to school, getting to know the world outside our home, I could tell that that was the time that I started feeling the pressure and the challenge of becoming true to myself, of becoming a homosexual.
As far as I could remember, all that I could think of by that time was..."how can my life be this challenging and tough compared to others?".
I was so young yet I felt like the struggles I was having were way beyond my age.
From my parents, relatives, friends, teachers...basically everyone around me, were treating me like I had a disease or I was cursed and that I needed to be cured. That was really horrible.
I could go on and on trying to mention every hardship I had by those times but this post would be very long then.
But as I could remember, it was very difficult and I really thought I would not survive it.
Years later, now that I am 24 years old and have become the person I have always wanted to be, as I am still transitioning to becoming a more feminine transgender, sure there are still more challenges-discriminations, rejections, etc., despite these things I still could experience every day of my transgender life, I definitely could say now that I have succeeded enough and I already passed the toughest times to becoming free as I can be.
I still consider living this life as very difficult, but at least now I have adjusted enough to not be so much of a victim. That makes me so grateful.
But the reason why I am writing this post was not really to describe how difficult it was, and still is, to live a homosexual life in the Philippines.
Sure when I was younger I thought that this country is the toughest and the cruellest place to live a homosexual life, for all of my life I have learned to believe that...until I stumbled upon a video on YouTube just recently that totally changed my life.
The Worst Place to be Gay?!? Based on the video I just saw...is Uganda.
Sad, but it may be true. :'(
You may watch the video by yourself for you to learn the sad truth about this. The video is almost 1 Hour long though. It is a BBC Three special, a documentary by the gay Radio 1 DJ named Scott Mills, a famous personality in England. Below is the video link and the description from the BBC:
Click the link below:
For video:
The World's Worst Place to Be Gay?
For BBC page:
World's Worst Place to be Gay
DURATION: 1 HOUR
Scott Mills travels to Uganda where the death penalty could soon be introduced for being gay. The gay Radio 1 DJ finds out what it's like to live in a society which persecutes people like him and meets those who are leading the hate campaign.
Here are some photos from the BBC site:
Scott Mills in Nakawa Market, Kampala, Uganda.
Scott Mills meets gay Ugandans forced to live in the slums because of their sexuality.
Scott confronts an anti-homosexual Pastor Solomon Male, one of Uganda's most vocal anti-gay preachers.
I hope you would really try to watch the whole video and be sadden about how cruel it is.
Would love to hear your opinion about the clip on the comment section.
My heart is broken right now knowing some homosexuals, or to say that some PEOPLE are suffering this cruelty.
This makes me cry :'(
EMPoY :'(
