[LCC] FW: Filipino gay love--communist rebel style

[Fogel, Jerise]

:)
j
-----Original Message-----
From: Noel Alumit  
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2005 9:48 PM

I swear this could ONLY happen in the Philippines!

Noel

Philippine Daily Inquirer
7 Feb 05
http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=26688 

Reds officiate first gay marriage in NPA By Rolando B. Pinsoy Inquirer
News
Service

DARE to struggle, dare to win ... as married gays. After raiding a few
Army
camps, two communist guerrillas hid in a forest gorge and fell in love.

Deeply.

That was three years ago. On Friday, under a romantic drizzle in a muddy
clearing in Compostela Valley province in Mindanao, Ka Andres and Ka
Jose
exchanged vows in a heavily guarded ceremony before local villagers,
friends
from the city and their comrades in arms.

They are considered the first homosexual couple in the New People's Army
(NPA) who were wed by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

During the "wedding," sponsors draped a sequined CPP flag around the
couple's shoulders. The flag was held in place by a long, beaded cord
which
also went around the couple and the sponsors -- symbolizing that their
marriage would be made stronger with the help of comrades and the
masses.

Andres held a bullet, as did Jose and each other's hands. The bullets
represented their "commitment in the armed struggle."

Throughout the ceremony, a choir serenaded them with revolutionary love
songs. After they signed their "wedding contract," the newlyweds kissed
amid
the usual applause.

Jose recalled the day he first visited the NPA camp for his
revolutionary
integration -- a practice resorted to by city-based revolutionary
activists
before their deployment in the countryside.

This was the first time he met Andres, who was preparing audio-visual
materials for a basic revolutionary education seminar.

Jose was young and had a sexist, macho attitude and thought Andres was a
typical tiguwang bayot (old gay), an object of scorn and ridicule.

Andres, an education instructor in the movement, was busy with his work
and
did not take too much notice of Jose.

Besides, Andres already had a boyfriend. Later, the two started to
discuss
politics.

"I began to understand the revolution and why gays are discriminated by
society," Jose said in an interview.

Started as friends

When Jose's integration program ended, he decided to join the NPA. It
was
Andres who accompanied him to the armed unit -- his first assignment.

They met several times during education training. At the start, it was
purely a comradely interaction. Later, it became romantic.

"I realized he was caring and malambing (affectionate). He would never
leave
me in times of difficulty," Jose said.

Andres recalled when they both got separated from their comrades on
their
way to get supplies. It was raining and Andres spent the night alone in
the
forest without provisions. The following day, he ran into Jose, who had
also
spent the night in the woods, looking for him.

'Sweetheart'

Jose once confided to Andres that sometimes, he would find himself
attracted
to female comrades.

"I don't get jealous. Even if we are away from each other for months
because
of the nature of our respective works. I trust him," Andres said.

Neither is their age gap an issue. Jose is 21 while Andres is 54. They
call
each other "sweetheart."

"Andres helps me overcome the challenges and to become strong
politically
and ideologically," Jose said.

When the couple realized they were falling in love, they immediately
sought
the approval of their respective "collective" or cell unit.

It is the collective's responsibility to foster a strong relationship
within
the group and members are assessed every four months.

First gay marriage

As the first same-sex marriage in the NPA, theirs is a union long
awaited by
comrades who support gay rights in the movement. It is also a
manifestation
of the communist movement's recognition of the right to engage in gay
relations and to marry.

Although the CPP already recognized gay relations and same-sex marriage,
it
was not easy for Andres and Jose to make the decision to finally marry.

First, the couple worked hard to change the traditional mind-set of some
comrades regarding gays and gay relationships. They attributed these
biases
to the prevailing "patriarchal" culture in Philippine society.

On gay relations

"[We] conducted painstaking discussions to make comrades understand gay
relations and gay rights," Andres said.

"Gay cadres adhere to the strong Party discipline. They enhance the
prestige
of gays in the movement. This has gained positive results through the
years.
Comrades (male and female) and even the masses have learned to respect
and
recognize gays and their contribution to the revolution," he said.

As early as 1995, the CPP's Southern Mindanao Regional Party Committee
started to discuss gay rights in the movement.

In 1998, a provision on gay relations and same-sex marriage was added to
the
CPP's guiding policy on relations contained in a document titled "On the
Proletarian Relationship of Sexes (OPRS)."

Under the OPRS, the communist movement is committed to guide and ensure
there is no exploitation in any relationship-heterosexual or homosexual.

What about kids?

During the wedding ceremony, comrades asked Jose -- in jest -- if Andres
could sexually satisfy him.

"If there is love, everything follows, including sexual satisfaction,"
Jose confessed.

The couple was also asked if they planned to have kids.

The newlyweds said they would deal with the issue later.

"What we have to do now -- with the help of the Party -- is to work on
our
marriage and to be strong while serving the people," Jose said.

--

http://news.inq7.net/breaking/index.php?index=2&story_id=26751 

NPA gay wedding 'propaganda'--military, police By Joel Francis Guinto
INQ7.net

MILITARY and police officials dismissed a reported gay wedding in the
New
People's Army (NPA) as "propaganda." By allowing Ka Andres and Ka Jose
to
wed in Compostela Valley province last Friday, the communist rebels also
showed that "they don't have a god," the officials said.

This is part of propaganda to entice gays to join the NPA," Army
spokesman
Major Bartolome Bacarro told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo.

"But I know gays are wise enough and [will] look beyond this
[propaganda],"
Bacarro said.

"This proves that the NPA has no religion," military public information
office chief Lieutenant Colonel Buenaventura Pascual said.

"This proves they (NPA) have no god and their morality is very much in
question, " Air Force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Restituto Padilla
agreed.

In a phone interview, Philippine National Police chief Director General
Edgar Aglipay expressed a similar apprehension.