Savages and barbarians

ROTC

Rizal, Roco and Robin

The first time

Ebai and Lag-an

Transgenders

M. L. Tan

At a recent international conference in Manila someone supposedly attended a session entitled, "Transgender issues" and sat in the room becoming more and more confused as the papers were delivered. After some time, he finally got around to asking his seatmate, "When are they going to discuss migration?"

"Transgendered" is one of those new words that floats around, its meaning still being processed. For the bewildered participant at the Manila conference, it had something to do with migration, which was sort of correct but not in a way he had expected.

To explain "transgendered", I will have to describe its broader use – "transgendered" is the "T" in "LGBT", which means "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered" communities, a term coined by gay rights activists. "LGBT" itself has gone through several incarnations, guided by excruciating political correctness.

In the beginning, if I may present a kind of sexual genesis story combined with a quickie course on sexuality, it was just "gay and lesbian" but that term was considered sexist – why gay men first and then lesbians? The term was also criticized for excluding bisexuals. In response to this criticism, "gay and lesbian" became "lesbian, gays and bisexuals".

Before moving on, let’s get those terms explained. I’m sure you already know but I want to make sure. "Gay" is more or less a synonym for homosexual, meaning someone attracted to people of the same sex. Used in the phrase "gay and lesbian", "gay" is meant to refer to "gay men" while lesbians are "gay women". Bisexuals, on the other hand, are people who are attracted to both sexes. (The slang term, "ac/dc", is a wonderful metaphor – you can be nicely plugged in or you can fit snugly like batteries.)

Was "lesbian, gay, bisexual" accepted? No, the next ones to complain were transsexuals. Transsexuals are people who believe they were born in a wrong body and need to have their sex changed. Many people confuse "transsexuals" with "homosexuals", but these are two different categories. Most lesbians and gay men are perfectly happy with their existing "equipment".

For a very brief time then, people would talk about "lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals" but somewhere along the road, the word "transgendered" propped up not only to accommodate transsexuals but the many other gender categories which were being "discovered" in non-western societies and which didn’t quite fit into the western definitions of "lesbian", "gay" and "bisexual".

The local bakla was one such category. We tend to translate "bakla" into "gay" or "homosexual" but that rendition is not quite accurate. "Gay" or "homosexual" in a western setting refers to someone attracted to the same sex. In western societies, the "rule" is that gay men go to bed with gay men, lesbians with lesbians. In the Philippines, a bakla, at least traditional ones, will not go to bed with another bakla, such behavior bound to set off thunder, lightning, earthquakes and, worst of all, tsismis.

Bakla is more than "homosexual". The bakla (and loose equivalents such as the bayot among Cebuanos and agi among Ilonggos, as well as the kathoey of Thailand and the waria of Indonesia) considers himself a male with a female heart, pusong babae. He’s not quite transsexual – many are not interested in a sex-change operation. A bakla is, literally, a "third sex". The bakla considers himself almost-female, cross-dressing on a daily basis, often becoming more female than females in the sway of the hips, the thick make-up and the use of women’s clothing.

The bakla is attracted to men, which makes him homosexual, well, sort of, but not in the western sense. The catch here is that it’s not just any male but real men, ke tunay na lalake as in heterosexual men. A fellow bakla cannot become a boyfriend, although "bakla" is relative here and becomes the subject of much "bakla-dar" (as in "radar") in courtship. Signs of bakla-hood can be quite arbitrary. "You know," a bakla friend told me suspiciously, "my boyfriend is always singing songs from Miss Saigon." Goodbye boyfriend, hello Ate (Lea).

My lesbian friends have a favorite T-shirt showing a nurse presenting a newborn baby to the mother with the announcement, "It’s a lesbian!". The caption is of course done tongue-in-cheek but it captures what I’m trying to say – people are probably born homosexual but you can’t tell with a newborn child. Expressions of one’s sexuality – L, G, B or T -- come later, with great variation across cultures. "Transgender" tries to include the many categories in the world that defy western definitions. (I haven’t even discussed our tibo/tomboy, the silahis and, the most intriguing, the "tunay na lalake", men who self-identify as heterosexual but have sex with other men.)

Times do change. Many very masculine Filipino homosexuals now self identify as "bakla" but have no problems about having a relationship with another "bakla" (and singing Miss Saigon duets). All that to the chagrin of more traditional bakla, who can now point to Mayon’s eruption as the consequence of this abominable behavior.

As in so many aspects of Filipino culture, there’s a class factor to all this. Upper-class Filipino homosexuals often discriminate against lower-class "bakla", accusing them of propagating negative stereotypes of the "screaming faggot". As far as I’m concerned, the sashaying cross-dressing bakla and the gruff tibo are the original gay liberationists in the Philippines, bold enough to go public and challenge gender boundaries.

There is a paradox to all this. In many ways, the bakla and the tibo are actually quite conservative, preserving often archaic definitions of male and female. "Goodness," I want to tell some of my bakla friends, "real women don’t wear stiletto heels." As for some butch tibo friends, I want to go, "Only Erap and Jinggoy still use pomade." In a sense then, transgenders parody our fixed categories of what male and female are. Transgenders are trailblazers in the way they shuttle, migrate between genders.