J. Neil Garcia's Male Homosexuality in the Philippines: a short history

According to J. Neil Garcia, a prominent gay historian in the Philippines and UP professor, the (short) history of male homosexuality in the country is divided into three eras:

I. Pre-Hispanic period

In Garcia's oral accounts research of this period, women were revered by the society. They were priestesses and matriarchs who held themselves strongly. They had the power to divorce their husbands if they felt like it, choose their children's names, accumulate wealth and own properties.

With that, the so-called "somewhat-women" also had the distinction of being highly-regarded. They were called bayoguin (a bamboo specie), bayok, agi-ngin, asog, bido, and binabae. Part of their transformation was donning female clothes and acting as women, thus, they were more than cross-dressers, they were gender-crossers. They had crossed the male and female gender lines.

Like women, they were also babaylans and catalonans who healed sickness and intermediated between the world of the living and the spirits. They were respected leaders and figures of authority.

Further, men treated them as concubines.

(This research may raised eyebrows to some, but remember that they were no written reports before the Spanish era. Garcia relied on oral accounts that may need further study.)

II. Spanish period

As women's statuses deteriorated in the Spanish's patriarchal society, so did the gender-crossers who suffered ridicule and scorn. From bayoguin, they were referred to as bakla--meaning "confused" and cowardly. As to any confusion, there was always a resolution. It could be "straightened out."

To the Spaniards, kabaklaan was a temporary condition which might be corrected using "whatever persuasive, brutally loving means." (Garcia) Dito na pumasok ang pananakit sa mga bakla upang "itama sila" sa ngalan ng "pagmamahal" ng mga magulang.

Because there was something transient with kabaklaan, the Catholic Church had their sights more on sodomy and how un-Christian it was.


III. American period

With the onset of public education and mass media, sexuality was linked to psychological studies. Same-sex desire was labeled as homosexuality, and gay and lesbian terms were coined. Moreover, homo/hetero distinctions were classified and put in a box.

The Philippines subscribes to American education and it poses a problem since the homosexual (a genitally-male man whose object of sexual desire is the same sex) was equated with the bakla.

In his book, "Philippine Gay Culture: Binabae To Bakla, Silahis To MSM," Garcia differentiates a bakla to a homosexual:

1. Bakla as term is specifically denotative of the identity of the effeminate and/or cross-dressing male, while homosexual strictly refers to sexual object choice and hence it cuts across sexes. (And so, the term homosexual may be appended to either male or female, while bakla may not.) (Preface, xxi)

Homosexuality is a general term to which the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community belongs and is not gender-specific--whether one acts masculine or feminine. A bakla, in Pinoy world, is an effeminate male alone. A lesbian cannot be called a bakla. A masculine gay man would refused to be called bakla.

2. Bakla connotes a certain comportment in the same-sexual act which differentiates him from his masculine partner who is not considered a bakla precisely, while homosexual connotes a certain form of orientation, preference, or desire which both parties in a same-sexual experience engender and share. (Preface, xxii)

A bakla typifies with the female role in the relationship, thus, s/he prefers and is attracted to a straight man. Usually he feels like a woman whether he wants to act on it or not (be transsexual), so he is a transgendered individual.

Homosexual acts encompass a great deal of affairs between the persons involved in the relationship that both share and experience. No gender-specific activities; no typical roles to play. Both partners can be gay (or lesbian) which is a no-no to a bakla.

In Filipino culture, a straight man who has sex (for whatever reasons) with a bakla is not a bakla, therefore, is inconsistent with American studies.

3. Bakla’s specific history predates that of homosexuality in the Philippines, and until now, certain of its former nonsexual significance that relate to fear and confusion may be seen to persist in it. (Preface, xxii)

Even though homosexuality is relatively a new study, Filipinos use the terms bakla and homosexual interchangeably, and both suffer the same social stigmatization especially that homosexuality was considered to be a disorder in the beginning. The baklas concerned themselves not only with how they present themselves in public, but also with the thought that they were sick and sexual predators.

As homosexual changes from sexual disorder to sexual orientation, effeminacy becomes the target of homosexual studies. Effeminate behavior is likened to gayness which is not the case always. Eve Kosofsky, a Queer theorist, in her essay "How To Bring Your Kids Up Gay," it causes a problem since effeminate children are already tagged as gays even though they have yet to establish their sexual orientation.

This issue brings forth gender studies pioneered by Kosofsky, Judith Butler, and others who contest the boxing of male and female into gender-specific roles.

Tom Hardy, star of Inception, couldn't expressed it any better in his admittance of his sexual relations with men: "As a boy? Of course I have. I'm an actor for fuck's sake. I've played with everything and everyone. I love the form and the physicality, but now that I'm in my thirties, it doesn't do it for me. I'm done experimenting, but there's plenty of stuff in a relationship with another man, especially gay men, that I need in my life. A lot of gay men get my thing for shoes. I have definite feminine qualities and a lot of gay men are incredibly masculine." (Underline mine.) (Just Jared)

Tulad ng mga 'Kano, mahilig tayong mag-kahon ng mga kilos at ugali ng tao, but it isn't the case in other countries. Hindi issue sa kanila ang kung ano ang ginagawa mo sa pribado mong espasyo.

In local flavor, Uma Khouny declared recently that he is not gay despite kissing another man. "Nakipaghalikan ako sa lalake, gumimik ako sa gay bar. Because for me, bakla man o tomboy, we're all the same, di ba? Dito lang sa Pilipinas is the weirdest thing ever na bakit hindi tanggap yung bakla? For me, we're all the same." (PEP)

For many Filipinos, Uma seems to be "gender-crossing" (for lack of a better term) for he is neither that masculine nor feminine. That creates confusion dahil hindi siya mailagay sa kahon. We have to realize, though, that he grew up in Israel, and men out there don't exactly subscribe to specific gender ways.

There are other countries, as well, with customary men kissing as greeting, yet they don't brand themselves as homosexuals.

4. Finally, it needs to be reiterated that bakla and homosexual are terms belonging to two different knowledge systems, and therefore can only be irrevocably different from each other. (Preface, xxii)

A bakla is a homosexual, but a homosexual is not always a bakla. It is significant that they be studied distinctively from each other. Kaya importante ang mga pag-aaral ni Garcia tungkol sa mga homosexual sa Pilipinas. Binibigyang-linaw nito ang pinagmulan, kasalukuyang estado, at paroroonan ng homosekwalidad sa ating bansa.


Post-script:

Like some gay men in the Philippines, I have always been uncomfortable in identifying myself as bakla. I may be gay, but certainly, I don't feel like a bakla. I thought that it was just because that baklas are always equated here as the "parlorista types," and I didn't want to be associated with them. I don't go for straight men, and I am not into paying men for sex. Ang iniisip ko, bakit ako magbabayad kung makukuha naman ng libre. At sakit ng ulo lang ma-in love sa straight men.

I don't understand why such feeling exists within me until I get to read Garcia's differentiation. Naintindihan ko na iba nga ang bakla sa pagiging gay in general. Naintindihan ko rin na iba ang desires nila at hindi ko pwedeng ikumpara nang sa akin. I really can't call myself as such because I don't identify with it.

I haven't read Garcia's entire book, so I don't know what different Pinoy gays use to call or describe themselves. Most closeted Pinoy gay men prefer to loosely call themselves "bi" (for bisexual) to avoid the stigma attached to being gay even if their attractions are solely for the same sex.

Others use the term "discreet" which connotes acting or looking straight. My apprehension in using the term is that it gives a feeling of deceitfulness; something hidden; something shameful. I may not be fully out then, but I was never entirely inside the closet. I was never ashamed of who I was.

As I've mentioned before in one of my posts, the word bakla makes me uneasy. Pakiramdam ko kasi ay offensive siya at derogatory. But these days, OK na ako with it kasi alam ko na kung saan at paano siya gagamitin. Sana lang ay matuto rin ang karamihan sa paggamit nito ng tama at walang halong pangbabastos.