Free to have free thoughts

So many independence Day chevers posted all around. Just thought I'd share some here.

First, bumping off my original pitch for POC and wrote this article for the Independence Day special:

Free to be… but are we, really?

Freedom. It’s hard to throw around this word this time of the year, this era in our lifetime. One needs to be flexible in order to enjoy a relative amount of it, this freedom. And this is how we Pinoy LGBTQs have been negotiating our freedom -- by being flexible. Sure, we turn the other cheek, but we never forget incidents. Yes, we try to treat others like how we want to be treated, even if they do bad things to us just because of who we are. We try to forgive those who have hurt us in the past and try to reach out to them in order to have better social/working relations, even if they continue denying us our humanity just because of our SOGI.

 Read the rest here.

Then I went with my pitch and did the Stonewall commemoration article and intersected it with another pitch about how other lesbians don't participate in the advocacy circles, which is totally fine: 

Seeing the spirit of Stonewall simmer

But really, who are we to say what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s effective and what’s backward, or what’s proper or improper? Sometimes, it is all about strategy as well – the strategy of living, and the strategy of survival. How they live their lives outside of the advocacy circles could actually be investigated further, for in their strategies, perhaps they are developing a new(er) version of activism in being queer, in a way writing a new guidebook for queer survival. Perhaps that’s an initial food for thought for all of us as pride month excitedly unfolds.

Read the rest here.

And then one of my superfriends' photog stringer friend got an assignment that meshed LGBTs and Independence Day. Kahit di pa wagi ang balik-alindog program ko, I said what the hey, anything for the cause, teh. Lagi naman eh.

Ito ang kinalabasan nun:

LGBTs speak out on independence in a conservative society

For Libay, a feminist and a human rights advocate, there is a need to change the mindset of society through legislation, education, and media. She thinks that there is a need for a strong law or to amend existing laws that will give rights to LGBT people to enjoy life the same way as heterosexuals do. As part of academe, she believes that it is a never-ending battle to educate the public, especially reaching out to those with negative views about them.

Read the rest here.

But I like the other photos better though.

Kumo-coffice mode with Morena my travel netbook. 

(June 2012 photos courtesy of AC Dimatatac)

I think the photog missed the point of my shirt design. Sayang. 

Oh well papel.  Salamat na rin. 

Check it out. My friends are also there: si Mama Danton my CW classmate long before Ladlad days, then Kakay my superqueer lezpastora friendsheep from Dumaguete, fellow queer blogger Tata, saka my former student Pat.


Ayuz.