Comelec and Unharmful Loving Sex

A few days ago I offerred a summary of some of the great pro LGBT commentaries on the Internet about Comelec's rejection of Danton Remoto's Ang LadLad party list application (again).

Virtually the same day I found myself in La Funeraria Paz offering my sympathy to my longtime friend and co-activist, Danton, on the occasion of the sudden death of his mother. (Yes, I thought it was some terrible mixup. But it was his mother, this time; it was his father who had died last month. Much caring concern for you, Danton, on these two successive personal losses -- and then the Comelec iodicy, too.

This is a good time to recommend that you get to know this outstanding leader in the LGBT community, winner of the Pink Feather Award and many other honors. Check him out on the Internet.


Danton Remoto
July 6, 2009 at 9:41 am (Prof. Danton Remoto, elections)

Caption: Danton Remoto brings his pink army to the electorate. Photo by Pol Briana, Jr. Manila Bulletin
Pink Revolution: Ang Ladlad’s Danton Remoto
60 Minutes
June 28, 2009
Manila Bulletin

Will Danton Remoto be the Philippines’ answer to Harvey Milk?

Milk made history in 1977 when he became the first openly gay man elected into public office. Remoto is yet to do the same, but the impact he’s made on the Filipino lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community is certainly as impressive as Milk’s history-making feat.

Remoto, with fellow writer J. Neil Garcia, was behind the pioneering “Ladlad: An Anthology of Philippine Gay Literature.” Its effect on Filipino culture has been immense. Ladlad has gone through several editions, has resulted in the teaching of gay literature classes at the University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University, and is credited for Ang Ladlad, the partylist that Remoto formed in 2003.

“We started in September 2003 with only one mandate — to help Akbayan push the Anti-Discrimination Bill which was filed in 1999,” he says of Ang Ladlad’s beginnings. “Congress is not really against it, but they just think it is not as important. So lagi, ang mga bading, lesbians, transgender, bisexual, laging, kung baga cameo role lagi.”

Fighting for one’s rights is certainly nothing new for Remoto. With his father in the military, Remoto grew up with the belief that nobody should take any abuse lying down.

“My father was a military officer and we were trained to be amazons. Isa lang ang turo niya: You study hard; you study well at ‘pag may umaway sa inyo at umuwi kayo ng luhaan, papaluin ko kayo; you should learn to be tough and fight back,” he recalls with a laugh. “So ang nangyari ngayon, may mga pumupunta sa bahay namin na mga magulang, ‘Naku sir, ‘yang anak ninyong bading binugbog ang anak ko.’ Sabi ng tatay ko ‘Eh di, mabuti!’”

Remoto does the same fighting for the LGBT community. Whether it’s freeing hundreds of gay men being detained illegally or arguing for lesbians and transgenders who have been discriminated against for their sexual orientation, Remoto and his allies are always ready with a legal challenge and a witty retort.

“You have to show them that you will not allow this. If you show them that you will fight back, they will move away. Bullies are really cowards,” he says.

Remoto’s fight for equal rights would have reached its peak in the 2007 elections had Ang Ladlad been allowed to run as partylist, but the COMELEC refused to accredit the group, citing its lack of constituents. It is Remoto, however, who has the last laugh, as he is now planning to run for the Senate on an education platform.

“I’m running on a platform of education because I’ve been teaching for 22 years. ‘Yun talaga ‘yung alam na alam kong issue, ‘yun gay rights, kasama na ‘yan sa education.
Open-mindedness is a function of education, kasi ang tao kapag pinaaral mo, luluwag ang isip. Education is what we really need in this country,” he says.

To close June as the Pride Month, Danton Remoto lets it all out: about being gay in the Philippines, his vision for the Philippine LGBT community, and the possibility of being the country’s first openly gay senator. (RONALD S. LIM)

To continue, since my previous blog, the Internet continues to buzz with brilliant reactions to the stupid Comelec action. (I guess they have a right to "decide," but do they have the right to add ridiculing remarks to their decisions?)

I don't think I need to continue the summaries here (they are coming in from everywhere).
There is still the motion for recobnsideration to the full Comelec and the appeal to the Supreme Court.

But no sooner did I write those preceding words than my attention was caught by an opnion column in today's Inquirer. Let me just give a selected few of the highly quotable quotes.

Commentary
Why Ang Ladlad should thank the Comelec

By Florin T. Hilbay
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:30:00 11/22/2009


It is precisely because I disagree that I am elated.

Regardless of the eventual outcome of Ang Ladlad’s petition for accreditation, the decision starts a new era in Philippine constitutional law. We have now entered the discourse of substantive equality of the type that many other countries in the world today confront.

And because Ang Ladlad will be at the center of this development, they have the rare opportunity to craft the law’s development and gain political mileage out of it. They can only thank Nicodemus Ferrer and Co. for this gift.

What the Comelec has done is to sanction, with the use of public authority, prejudice against homosexuals. In constitutional law, this is equivalent to “state action,” which now arms Ang Ladlad with the power to raise the Equal Protection and the Non-Establishment of Religion Clauses in any appropriate domestic and, perhaps, even international forum.

This is no ordinary consequence.

Prior to the Comelec’s decision, prejudice against homosexuals by opinion writers, netizens, religious leaders and ordinary citizens could be considered, as a matter of doctrine, “private discrimination” which, however irrational and hurtful, is not attributable to the state. We can heckle these bigots out of classrooms, newspaper columns or coffee shops all we want, but we cannot go to courts and ask the speakers to stop and apologize.

Given that the Comelec is a public institution, aggrieved parties can now say that because the Constitution recognizes equality and secularism as basic tenets, the corrective organs of the state such as the Supreme Court are obligated to reverse and remedy the grave abuse of discretion committed here. Otherwise, the prejudice of the members of the Comelec will be transformed into official state policy.


Even those less than confident about the capacity of the Supreme Court to correct this constitutional violence should nonetheless rejoice. This is because the decision of the Comelec, by itself, already creates a formal platform for academic and legal discourse.

In the narrow sense, there is now an opportunity for students of the Constitution to talk about discrimination against homosexuals because they have a concrete case to study in class; in the larger sense, this decision opens the door to consciousness-raising of present and future policymakers.

Whereas, before, academics and advocates could only talk about discrimination against homosexuals in a cultural sense, today the Comelec has, by its narrow-mindedness, provided gay rights activists a rallying point that can potentially bring together previously unpoliticized and uncommitted supporters into the debate.


Those who study the history of constitutionalism in these islands will notice that the debate on equality has never really taken on a consciousness-transforming path. We have never had the kind of civil rights movement here of the kind that has legally emancipated blacks and women, even if we experience racism and women are still dis-empowered.

At some point, Congress discriminated against the Chinese to ease their control on the economy, but even today many distinctions on the basis of nationality are constitutionally unproblematic because under a state system citizens can expect more privileges than non-citizens.

The Ang Ladlad case presents a different scenario precisely because the petitioners here are citizens of the republic who have been specifically singled out.

In essence, what the Comelec has done is to declare the entire gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community constitutionally invisible and inappropriate subjects of election law.

This not only flies in the face of the policy of the party-list system to let the market of electors decide who they wish to send to Congress; it is also one of the most egregious violations of the principle of republicanism that guarantees citizens the right to participate in government through the vote.

By denying accreditation to Ang Ladlad, the Comelec disqualifies a substantial number of Filipinos from the game of civilized warfare called democracy.

This is fundamentally unfair because, as a group of human beings, they are entitled to seek recognition, meaning and happiness within the confines of a pluralistic constitutional regime.

It is tragic enough that they are sometimes subjected to humiliation by an insensitive society; it is worse when such malevolence is sanctioned by the very state that taxes them.

Florin T. Hilbay teaches constitutional law and legal theory at the UP College of Law and is currently a visiting fellow at the National University of Singapore School of Law.




To continue, God's will be done. The problem is, when the fate of the minority is in the hands of the majority, all too often, God's will is not considered (even though they quote the Bible, Canon Law, The Pope, The Imam...)

Since I am, and have been, for around 40 years an outspoken advocate of Sex-Positive Thinking, people do ask me, "Is there sexual sin? Is everything OK?"

I go out of my way to give an emphatic. "Yes, there is sin, and I repent everyday of my life for my personal experience in that regard. I don't repent because of deserving the fires of hell, but because of the harm and hurt and sadness I have caused those not deserving of such pain.

In the Sunday Inquirer (Nov. 22), Lito Gutierrrez presents a brilliant but quizzical feature. "Leave Manny Alone."

Is this the right queetion? "Did Manny show marital infidelity with Krista at the expense of wife Jinky?" If so, who's asking? Who has the right to ask? Why ask in a newspaper story? Is it because payment is made by the column inch? I don't know.

But look at the article. It seems to say, "See no evit; do no evil," but then the article proceeds to speak a lot of evil about the world's greatest boxer. Did he commit adultery? The article ends, "Leaave Manny Alone. Leave well enough alone."

Why do I say "quizical"? In the whole article the writer leads us into assuming that Manny had sex with Krista. If so, that is is not "well enough..."

Adultery is one of those things that falls into the category of "not good enough." Along with child abuse, using people, or harming another person in any way, verbally, physically, sexually, etc.

The same day, I painfully watched a TV documentary on child abuse by Catholic priests, nuns, and brothers in Catholic orphanages, etc.

Is there sin? There sure is.

Is Manny Paquiau guilty of sin? Just who am I to even ask that question? And i wonder why Gutierrez mulls over the question so belaboredly in an article where he writes of "Cathilic self-righteousness and rank hypocrisy."

Is there sin? Yes, there is sin. Yes, there is self-righteousness. Yes, there is hypocrisy.

Sex-positive theology does not erase, condone, cover over, or play blind to sin.

Sex-positive thinking is positive about the great gift of our loving God -- the great gift of unharmful, unforceful, loving sex.


"God is Friendship." (St. Aelred, 1110-1167)



REV. FR. RICHARD MICKLEY, OSAE, founding PASTOR MCC-MANILA,
founding abbot, The Order of St. Aelred

------------------------------------------------------------
Fr. Richard R. Mickley, O.S.Ae., Ph.D.
Abbot
The Order of St. Aelred
St. Aelred Friendship Society
82-D Masikap Extension
Barangay Central, Quezon City
1100 Metro Manila, Philippines
Landline: 63 2 921 8273
Mobile: 63 920 9034909
E-mail: saintaelred@gmail.com
Website: http://webspace.webring.com/people/ms/saintaelred/index.html
E-group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saeffriends
Fr. Richard’s personal blog: http://richardrmickley.blogspot.com
Catholic Diocese of One Spirit (CDOS) website: http://www.onespiritcatholic.org

Comelec Intensifies the National Sin

There are a lot of murders, kidnappings, abductions, graft, corruption, but what single act of infamasy can equal the infamous decision of a division of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) of the Philippine Government?

My dear LGBT friends have a difficult decision to make. We canot live in this world unless we are willing to be counter cultural.

We have to go against the trend (as demonstrated by the Comelec decison) of hate and prejudice. It seems ingrained in our culture.

How can we be effectively counter cultural?. March in the streets?, (30 or 40 of us)? Hold prayer meetings in front of Comelec offices? There is a time for such demonstrations.

But how can we be truly effective everyday of our lives? By being counter cultural.

But How? We are called by God to LOVE and HOLINESS. We are indeed not called by God to hate and prejudice. I guess that even means we are not called to hate the Comelec. Last election, the head of the Comelec who resigned after being accused of accepting a huge bribe, turned down Ang Ladlad's petition to be a pro-LGBT party (list). This year a division has done it even more hatefully. But Jesus says, love your enemies. Whew. That's hard. So, let's just love everybody around us and stop the hate and prejudice in our own lives as a way to start being counter cultural.

I don't need to write a further rebuke for the injustice of the Comelec. The Internet is buzzinfg with responses. Let me just put a few of them together in one place. The responses become overwhelming when they are all placed side by side. And I can only choose some of the them..

To start, the comelec resolution that aroused so much reaction in our LGBT community and even in the Human Rights Commission, in the Senate, and elsewhere is here presented in full for our utter disgusted amazement


SPP Case No. 09 - 228 (PL)


IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION FOR REGISTRATION OF ANG LADLAD LGBT PARTY
FOR THE PARTY-LIST SYSTEM OF REPRESENTATION IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

REPRESENTED HEREIN BY CHAIRMAN DANTON REMOTO, Petitioner.

x------------------------------------x
Ferrer, N. T., Presiding Commissioner
Promulgation: 11 November 2009




R E S O L U T I O N


- download pdf version here -


We resolve the verified Petition1 for registration of ANG LADLAD LGBT PARTY (Ang Ladlad, for brevity) as a sectoral party under the party-list system of representation.
Petitioner is a corporation duly organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the Philippines with postal address at Unit 304 Golden Legacy Condominium, 98 Xavierville Ave., Cor. Esteban Abada St., Loyola Heights, Quezon City.
In its Petition filed on August 17, 2009, petitioner alleges the following, to wit:
1) That it is composed of Lesbians, Gays, BisexuaIs, and Transgenders, "like-minded individuals with the same concerns and interests, comprising a bona fide sectoral organization";
2) That it seeks to participate in the Party-list system as a sectoral party to represent the "Filipino Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Community";
3) That it has nationwide constituency;
4) That Petitioner "is not a religious sect or denomination";
5) That it does not "advocate violence or unlawful means to seek its goal";
6) That it "or any of its nominees/party-list representatives have not violated or failed to comply with laws, rules, or regulations relating to the elections";
7) That it is "not and endeavors not to receive any support from any foreign government, foreign political party, foundation, organization, whether directly or through any of its officers or members or indirectly through third parties for partisan election purposes"; and
8) That it "is not a party or organization that is an adjunct of, or a project organized or an entity funded or assisted by, the government;
Attached to the Petition are its Certificate of Incorporation2, By-laws3, Articles of Incorporation4 and List of Officers and Members.
An Order5 dated September 4, 2009 was issued directing Regional Election Directors to verify the existence of petitioner in Regions I-XIII, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and the National Capital Region (NCR).
The case was set for hearing on September 24, 2009 in an Order6 of the Commission dated September 9, 2009 which also directs petitioner to publish its petition as well as the said Order in two (2) daily newspapers of general circulation.
The Petition was heard as scheduled on September 24, 2009. Petitioner, through counsel, presented on the witness stand Prof. Danton Remoto, the President of the party, who, having authenticated the documents establishing the jurisdiction of the Commission all the documents attached as annexes to the Petition, testified on direct examination and identified all the documents attached as annexes to the Petition, and answered clarificatory questions propounded by the members of the Second Division.
Thereafter, petitioner was directed to formally offer its evidence the following day during office hours. However, it failed to comply with the order.
This Petition must fail.
There are two (2) issues to be resolved in the present case, these are:
Whether or not the documents establishing the jurisdiction of the Commission and other documents can be admitted as evidence considering that the same were not formally offered; and


Whether or not petitioner should be accredited as a sectoral party under the party-list system of representation.
Anent the first issue, we hold that the evidence of petitioner may be admitted. The general rule when evidence is not formally offered is found in Section 347, Rule 132 of the Rules of Court which forbids the courts from considering evidence not formally offered. However, when evidence has been duly identified by testimony duly recorded and incorporated in the records of the case, the rule may be relaxed such that evidence not formally offered may be admitted.8
The exception may be applied to the case at bar. Petitioner, through its witness and President, Danton Remoto, sufficiently identified the pieces of evidence presented. The testimony was duly recorded and incorporated in the records of the case. Hence, the documents authenticated and testified on by witness Remoto are hereby admitted, although not formally offered in evidence by the petitioner.
Despite the foregoing, however, this Petition is dismissible on moral grounds. Petitioner defines the Filipino Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Community, thus:
"xxx a marginalized and under-represented sector that is particularly disadvantaged because of their sexual orientation and gender identity."
and proceeded to define sexual orientation as that which:
"xxx refer to a person's capacity for profound emotional, affectional and sexual attraction to, and intimate and sexual relations with, individuals of a different qender, of the same gender, or more than one gender."
This definition of the LGBT sector makes it crystal clear that petitioner tolerates immorality which offends religious beliefs. In Romans 1:26, 27, Paul wrote:
"For this cause God gave them up into vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet".9
In the Koran, the hereunder verses are pertinent:
"For ye practice your lusts on men in preference to women "ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds." (7.81). "And we rained down on them a shower (of brimstone): Then see what was the end of those who indulged in sin and crime!" (7:84) "He said: "0 my Lord! Help Thou me against people who do mischief!""(29:30)."10
As correctly pointed out by the Law Department in its Comment dated October 2, 2008:
"The 'ANG LADLAD' apparently advocates sexual immorality as indicated in the Petition's par. 6F: 'Consensual partnerships or relationships by gays and
(2) serve no other purpose but to satisfy the market for violence, lust or pornography; (3) offend any race or religion; (4) tend to abet traffic in and use of prohibited drugs; and (5) are contrary to law, public order, morals and good customs, established policies, lawful orders, decrees and edicts;
(3) Those who shall sell, give away or exhibit films, prints, engravings, sculpture or literature which are offensive to morals. (As amended by PD Nos. 960 and 969)."
Petitioner should be denied accreditation not only for advocating immoral doctrines but likewise for not being truthful when it said that it "or any of its nominees/party-list representatives have not violated or failed to comply with laws, rules, or regulations relating to the elections".
Furthermore, should this Commission grant the petition, we will be exposing our youth to an environment that does not conform to the teachings of our faith. Lehman Strauss, a famous bible teacher and writer in the U.S.A said in one article that ''older practicing homosexuals are a threat to the youth"11. As an agency of the government, ours too is the State's avowed duty under Section 1312, Article II of the Constitution to protect our youth from moral and spiritual degradation.
We are not condemning the LGBT, but we cannot compromise the well-being of the greater number of our people, especially the youth.
WHEREFORE, premises considered, this Petition is hereby DISMISSED.
SO ORDERED.
(Sgd.) NICODEMO T. FERRER
Presiding Commissioner
(Sgd.) LUCENITO N. TAGLE
Commissioner(Sgd.) ELIAS R. YUSOPH
Commissioner

CERTIFICATION


I hereby certify that the conclusions in the above resolution were reached in consultation among the members of the Commission before the case was assigned to the writer of the opinion of the Commission's Second Division.
(Sgd.) NICODEMO T. FERRER
Presiding Commissioner


Then we proceed to a recent piece which somewhat sums up the situation.

Messages
1a. Poll exec: To be moral is not old-fashioned
Posted by: "Danton R" danton_ph@yahoo.com danton_ph
Mon Nov 16, 2009 6:39 am (PST)

Poll exec: To be moral is not old-fashioned
Written by Reynaldo Santos Jr.
Monday, 16 November 2009
Gays are already `over-represented' in the House
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) stands firm on its decision to deny a gay organization accreditation for the party list, even after the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) sided with the incensed members of the "third sex."

In response to the CHR's comment that the poll body's ruling on Ang Ladlad (literally, The Coming Out) "smacks of prejudice and discrimination," Comelec commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer said there was nothing "retrogressive" in it.

Ferrer, along with commissioners Lucenito Tagle and Elias Yusoph, on grounds the group "tolerates immorality," last week rejected Ang Ladlad's petition to participate in the party-list elections and be hopefully represented in the lower chamber of Congress.
In its petition for accreditation, the group claims to represent lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and trans-genders. It defined its sector's sexual orientation as capable of "profound emotional, affectional, and sexual orientation to, and intimate and sexual relations with, individuals of a different gender, of the same gender, or more than one gender."

Thus, the Comelec ruling that the group would be "exposing our youth to an environment that does not conform to the teachings of our faith."

Penal code applied
"In using my judgement in cases like this, of course I have to resort to my past experiences," Ferrer said about his being Catholic.

The commissioners came under fire from CHR for citing provisions in the Bible and the Koran, sacred books of the Christians and the Muslims, respectively, to stress its argument that "petitioner tolerates immorality which offends religious beliefs."
Ferrer said the use of verses from the holy books was necessary, as they "give us guidelines on how to behave morally."

"To be moral is not old-fashioned," he said, in response to Ang Ladlad head Danton Remoto's comment that Ferrer is "a very old man with obsolete ideas."

Ferrer said that the decision may have been "medieval," but it is definitely not a violation of human rights, as he assured that the provisions in the Revised Penal Code are well incorporated in the decision. "We're applying the law as it is," he said.


Gay lawmakers?
Ferrer also said that the Comelec did not present "unequal protection of law" with its decision. According to him, there are no other petitions similar to Ang Ladlad's, hence the group is not being singled out.

Besides, Ferrer said, there is no need for Ang Ladlad to join the party list because its sector is not under-represented. "Actually, [they are] over represented in the Upper and Lower House," he said.
To this, Remoto replied: "Is it correct to out gays who want to keep themselves in the
closet?" he said.

Remoto said the commissioners' use of scriptures "as props for legal arguments" is "not the proper way to argue. They should have defended their own opinion the legal way." He said their religious biases came into play in deciding on Ang Ladlad's petition. He said Ferrer is a Eucharistic minister in Pangasinan, Tagle is a director of Christian Family Movement in Cubao, and Yusoph is a Muslim imam.


Welcome intervention
Ferrer said that they are ready for interventions from groups like CHR "to give them full opportunity to express their views." The Comelec, according to him, though, has to look at the "interests" of petitioning parties to see if there are "reasons other than a valid purpose."
He said the gay group is seeking accreditation only to create a vehicle "to separate themselves from the mainstream. Do they want to impose their will against the majority?"

Remoto said Ferrer has no recourse but to accept the CHR's intervention because he could be impeached if he doesn't. Remoto said the anti torture law states that government officials who are found violating human rights will be subject to impeachment proceedings.

Ang Ladlad will be filing a petition to both Comelec and the Supreme Court this week in able to catch up with the December 1 deadline of filing of candidacies.
The commissioner said only 30% of all appeals for reconsideration are approved, and the poll body is not giving preferences to any group. (Newsbreak)

Now I present the statement of Senator Loren Legarda, candidate for vice President of the Republic.

This is the statement of support by Sen. Loren Legarda sent to me this
afternoon by her Chief Legal Counsel Atty. Anton Paredes.
Senator Loren Legarda’s Statement on the Disqualification of Ang Ladlad
Party for the 2010 Elections


As citizen and Senator of the Republic, I question the recent rejection of
Ang Ladlad Party to be a duly registered sectoral party by the Commission on
Elections (COMELEC) because of allegations of ‘immorality.’ The Comelec
invoked passages from the Holy Bible and the sacred Qu’ran to justify their
decision on Ang Ladlad’s petition for party registration.

The Republic of the Philippines is a secular state, and as such, we must
ensure the clear separation of church and state in our civil and political
affairs, as enshrined in the Philippine Constitution, Article II, Section 6.
Invoking justifications from sacred texts should not stand in the way of our
secular and liberal democratic principles and the rights for political
representation of all well-meaning Filipino citizens.

Every Filipino, regardless of sexual orientation, can exercise the
fundamental right to be represented in the country’s political affairs,
including the right to run for public office as political parties and
individuals, and to present their platform to the Filipino electorate. There
should be no room for discrimination and bigotry against any group
representing gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation from within the ranks
of our government.

We are now at a historic time when nation after nation has begun to
decisively dismantle the barriers of the past – such as those that denied
groups and individuals from being rightfully considered as equals. Many of
these barriers were premised on differences based on gender, race and sexual
orientation. While more and more countries have been embracing deserving
homosexuals as state leaders (e.g., Iceland), as ministers (e.g., France),
and as regular members of their armed forces (e.g., USA), by its recent
decision, our COMELEC is dangerously institutionalizing social exclusion and
intolerance, and degrading a party like Ang Ladlad as political pariah.

A fair and honest election, fundamentally presupposes that every legal
individual and party group aspiring for public office should be treated with
respect, without bias, and with equality, irrespective of their religion,
race, ethnicity, class and sexual orientation.
Senator Loren Lagarda

)..Quite insightful is the response of a much loved and highly respected professor at the university of the Philippines, Director of the UP Center for Women's Studies (where I have been guest speaker on several occasions

Dear Editor
Is there anyway to impeach the following Comelec Comisssioners: Nicodemo T. Ferrer, Lucinito N. Tagle and Elias R. Yusoph?

They must be impeached because they have openly decided to turn the
country into a religious state instead of a secular one. I am referring
of course to their decision to outlaw Ladlad on the basis of upholding
religious beliefs. They quote the Bible and the Koran forgetting that
they should consult the Philippine Constitution instead. Only in the
Philippines would we have high government officials who state that
obedience to religious beliefs trumps other more cogent legal
provisions as a basis for policy.

If stupidity were a basis for
impeachment, the proceedings would be quite short. Their display of
ignorance of current scientific knowledge on sexuality is quite
appalling. They should have taken the simple expedient of asking any
psychiatrist or psychologist who upholds the standards of organizations
like the World Health Organization or the American Psychiatric and
Psychological Associations. They would have been told that
homosexuality was delisted as a psychological pathology more than 30
years ago. They either did not bother to read for themselves or
consulted the psychiatric association of the Taliban when they decided
that homosexuality is an abnormality.

As a Filipino citizen who
is neither Christian nor Muslim; as a practitioner and teacher in
psychology and sexuality; as someone who cares that we do not look like
backward bigots to the world community; I urge the impeachment of these
men who have violated morals, scientific truths and our laws against
discrimination.

I am so upset. I'm gay starting today and until Ladlad gets accredited.

Sylvia Estrada Claudio, M.D. PhD.
Director, University Center for Women’s Studies
Professor of Women and Development Studies
University of the Philippines


Another venerable Senator of the Republic who will someday be as old as I spoke out in his customary frank and to the point manner. We thank our American friend George DiCarlo for picking this up for us.


http://www.philstar .com/Article. aspx?articleId= 523485&publicationSubCateg oryId=63

Joker comes to defense of Ang Ladlad
By Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star) Updated November 15, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Joker Arroyo came to the defense of Ang Ladlad, a gay organization whose petition for party-list status was junked by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on grounds of “immorality.”

Arroyo joined several organizations, including militant groups, in asking the Comelec to reconsider its decision.
“
The Comelec’s 2nd Division acted out of bounds when it denied accreditation to Ang Ladlad’s bid to participate in the party-list elections on grounds of ‘immorality’ and for ‘being inimical to the interest of the youth,’” Arroyo said.


“The resolution reveals a deeply-entrenched prejudice against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders (LGBTs), the constituency of Ang Ladlad. So what if they are LGBTs?

Precisely because of that, as a group which has been oppressed and marginalized in all spheres of their lives, they should be allowed to exercise their basic right to representation in the House of Representatives to protect and advance their interest, the very objective of party-list representation,” Arroyo added.

According to Arroyo, the Comelec’s mandate is to ensure clean and honest elections, not to vent their ire and prejudice against gays.


All groups stand on equal footing to have party-list representation under the Constitution. The Comelec cannot, as their 2nd Division has done, discriminate against and whiplash gays, while they give party-list accreditation to cock fighters, etc.,” Arroyo said.


“The decision violates their human rights, is utterly bereft of legal basis, grounded as it was
on blighted notions of moral standards, even as it invoked the Bible and the Koran,” the senator stressed.

The Second Division, composed of Commissioners Nicodemo Ferrer, Lucenito Tagle and Elias Yusoph, refused to accredit the organization as a party-list group because their sexuality “tolerates immorality.”


Meantime, Migrante is poised to file a petition for temporary restraining order (TRO) before the Supreme Court next week if the Comelec fails to immediately resolve its motion for reconsideration of a resolution denying them a slot in the 2010 party-list polls.
Migrante chair Connie Bragas-Regalado said that barely five days are left before the 11-day period for the filing of “manifestation of intent to participate” in party-list elections but the Comelec has not acted on their motion.

“The denial of our petition to be registered as a sectoral party (that can join the polls) is already questionable. Now, the Comelec keeps us in limbo by not acting on our motion so we are preparing to seek a TRO from the Supreme Court,” she told The STAR.
Migrante was among the 25 party-list organizations rejected by the Comelec on various grounds.


From Nov. 20 to Dec. 1, the groups joining the party-list elections will have to file their manifestation. The same period was given to candidates to file their certificates of candidacy.

Regalado said that in rejecting Migrante, more than 10 million overseas Filipino workers have been denied their representation in Congress without justifiable reason.


“The Comelec should hold a hearing in order to prove that the delisting was not politically motivated. We are legal, we have the constituency and everything that is needed for us to join in the party list elections,” she added. – With Sheila Crisostomo


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George DeCarlo
908 342 1275 (cell)

We are also indebted to George for the following comments:

Hate promoted by Comelec
InboxX

Reply |George DeCarlo to Progay, saeffriends
show details 14 Nov (4 days ago)
The Bible and Koran are quoted to support thier moral theory. Did Comelec think to look at the Philippines' Constitution that makes and clear strong separation of churchc and state? This separation in the constitution is stronger in language than the US Consitution.

I believe that many nations giving financial assistance to the Philippines needs to know about the hate.


Published on ABS-CBN News Online Beta (http://www.abs-cbnnews.com)
Home > Lifestyle > Comelec says gay party 'immoral'
Comelec says gay party 'immoral'

by Kristine Servando, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak | 11/12/2009 8:56 PM

In this article:
Comelec Rules that Ang Ladlad poses 'risks' to Pinoy youth
Ang Ladlad to appeal decision
Danton Remoto: Comelec's ideas on homosexuals are 'obsolete

MANILA - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday rejected Ang Ladlad for party-list accreditation on the grounds that the party advocates "sexual immorality" and "immoral doctrines."



Ang Ladlad is an organization of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT).
In a ruling dated November 11 [12], the Comelec said that although the party presented proper documents and evidence for their accreditation, their petition is "dismissable on moral grounds."

Page 5 of the ruling states that Ang Ladlad's definition of the LGBT sector as a marginalized sector who are disadvantaged because of their sexual orientation "makes it crystal clear that the petitioner tolerates immorality which offends religious beliefs."

The document quotes passages from both the Bible and the Koran (taken from internet site www.bible.org [13]) that describe homosexuality as "unseemly" or "transgressive."
The Comelec goes on to state that accrediting Ang Ladlad would pose risks for Filipino youth.

"
Should this Commission grant the petition, we will be exposing our youth to an environment that does not conform to the teachings of our faith," the ruling stated.

'Gays are threats to youth'

This statement is followed by a quote by preacher Lehman Strauss published in a website saying "older practicing homosexuals are a threat to the youth."
The Comelec said it is "not condemning" the LGBT community but "cannot compromise the well-being of a great number of people."

The document was signed by Commissioners Nicodemo Ferrer, Lucenito Tagle, and Elias Yusoph.

Ang Ladlad also applied for party-list accreditation in 2007, but was denied this due to the lack of regional membership in the Philippines.


'Painfully obsolete ideas'
Danton Remoto, National Chairperson of "Ang Ladlad" that pushes for LGBT rights. He also plans to run for Senator in 2010. Photo by Ralph Camus.

Danton Remoto, President of Ang Ladlad, told abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak in a phone interview that they will contest the Comelec ruling before the Supreme Court.

"This is a decision of painfully old men with painfully obsolete ideas on homosexuality. We are in the 21st century already, we are fighting for human rights. They do not know what they are talking about," he said.


Remoto, who taught literature at the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University for over 20 years, criticized the Comelec's allegation that older homosexuals are threats to the youth.
"How would I have stayed in the country's premier exclusive Catholic school (Ateneo) if I were a threat to the youth?" he stated as an example.

He also took issue against the Comelec ruling's frequent citation of internet-sourced reports, saying that a legal document should at least use primary sourcing. Remoto said this spoke of "intellectual bankruptcy" among Comelec officials.

Remoto said that the Comelec ruling is offensive to the LGBT community and an insult to their human rights.


Comelec spokesman James Jimenez, however, said he does not consider the Comelec's dismissal of Ang Ladlad's petition for party-list accrediation as a human rights issue.
"They might bring it up because they might feel offended of being called immoral. In that case, it's their right to bring whatever action is deemed necessary," he told abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak in a phone interview.

He added that the right to be voted for is not absolute and is subject to reasonable regulation.


Immoral institution?

Remoto also questioned the Comelec's decision to deny the party's accreditation based on moral and religious reasons since the Constitution provides for separation between the Church and State.


Since when did the Comelec become a moral arbiter? The Comelec is a state institution, [it is] not the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines," he said.

"The Comelec has no right to make decisions on morality because it is not a moral or religious institution. It is a political institution, and hence, should confine itself to politics," Remoto added.


Jimenez said it is standard for the Comelec to consider what each party-list stands for before accrediting them.

He cited the case of the Samahang Magdalo, a reformist group led by detained mutineers, who were denied party-list accreditation [14] on the grounds that they "advocated violence."
The Ang Ladlad is requesting help from the Ateneo Human Rights Center in filing a motion for reconsideration before the Comelec, before raising the issue to the Supreme Court, where Remoto believes the party may have "some hope."


All is not lost for Remoto and his crusade for LGBT rights, however, since he announced plans to run for Senator in 2010 "under a big political party." He will make a formal announcement in 2 weeks.

Should the Comelec approve his candidacy, he will be the first openly gay senatorial candidate in recent history. Report by Kristine Servando, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak.
as of 11/13/2009 6:16 PM

--
George DeCarlo
908 342 1275 (cell)

And one more from the many pieces sent by George:

'Medieval' Comelec hit for rejecting Ang Ladlad
ANDREO C. CALONZO, GMANews.TV

Gay bashers or grand inquisitors?

Critics of the Commission on Elections are increasing. Politicians and netizens believe that the Comelec acted "medieval" after it rejected the petition of a gay and lesbian group to be accredited as a party-list group and join next year’s national elections.

“To deny representation for the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) as a marginalized sector is outright discrimination. To invoke religion to violate their rights is sheer bigotry," said Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza in a statement sent to media on Saturday.
The Comelec’s Second Division presided by Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer on Thursday denied Ang Ladlad’s petition on basis of “moral grounds."

In its eight-page resolution, the poll body said the group “apparently advocates" sexual immorality, which violates the Civil Code and the Revised Penal Code.

Akbayan party-list Rep. Ana Theresia Hontiveros said the Comelec’s decision could be used as basis to impeach the officials of the poll body.

“By using religion as a basis to reject Ang Ladlad’s accreditation, they have crossed the constitutional boundary between the State and religion. For that alone, they can be impeached. They should be made to read the Constitution," said Hontiveros, author of the Anti-Discrimination Bill, which grants equal rights to LGBTs.

Maza is asking the Comelec if it has already become a member of a religious group, while Hontiveros thinks that the poll body has become “homophobic and medieval" in its actions.
“It is ironic that they view LGBTs as immoral, when the LGBT community is a part of the human family. Filipino LGBTs are citizens of our country, and they deserve to be accorded with equal rights," said Hontiveros.

“Furthermore, what is the ascendancy of COMELEC to be the country’s moral compass when it has accredited the party-list of Palparan, a human rights violator?" added Hontiveros.

Critics from cyberspace

nti-Comelec statements have also flooded cyberspace. User burlanhagi of the gay site Manilagayguy.net hit Comelec for denying the LGBT community the right to be represented in government.

“Party-lists, in the first place, are supposed to represent marginalized sectors in society and not the majority. Some people need to review their basic laws and constitutions," the user said.

Another visitor of the site, poorcomelec, commented, “Hello Philippine government? 21st century na. Free society na tayo. Sana one day dumating ‘yung time na totally na ang pamahalaan sa simbahan pagdating sa social matter."

(Hello Philippine government? It’s the 21st century already. We are already in a free society. I hope there will come a day that the government would be totally separated with the Church regarding social matters.)

A lesbian user of another forum nicknamed "fireworks" questioned the “different treatment" toward members of the LGBT community.

“To say the least, homosexuals, who are said to have equal rights with other citizens, (are) treated differently because of lifestyle and sexual preference," she said.

Two years ago, the group led by professor Danton Remoto also failed to get Comelec’s nod. In the February 27, 2007 resolution, the Comelec’s Second Division then presided by Commissioner Florentino A. Tuason Jr. said that Ang Ladlad declared untruthful statements in its petition.

“Contrary to petitioner’s allegation in its petition that its membership is national in scope, reports from our field offices reveal that it doesn’t exist in most regions of the country," the resolution stated. - GMANews.TV

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George DeCarlo
908 342 1275 (cell)

.Lets go now to look at the almost angered response of the Chairperson of the Human Rights Comission (CHR) :

George DeCarlo to Progay, saeffriends
show details 16 Nov (1 day ago)

Yes, I know others have mentioned it and it is very good that they have brought the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. But,...from the Philippine Constitution

Section 5. No law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed. No religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20091115-236451/CHR-supports-gay-party-bid-to-join-partylist-polls

CHR supports gay party bid to join partylist polls
‘Comelec ban smacks of prejudice, discrimination’
By Jocelyn Uy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:43:00 11/15/2009
Filed Under: Human Rights, Eleksyon 2010, Inquirer Politics
MANILA, Philippines -- The Commission on Human Rights has expressed support for the gay organization, Ang Ladlad, in its bid to join the party-list elections in May 2010, saying homosexuality is part of the diversity of the Filipino culture and must be part of Philippine politics.


CHR Chair Leila de Lima said on Sunday her office would file a motion for intervention before the Comelec in support of the gay organization's move to overturn the decision barring it from seeking congressional representation in the May elections.

It said the decision of a Comelec division smacked of prejudice and discrimination and that it appeared to be a "misplaced edifice of arcane views on homosexuality." In making such decision, the Comelec division exhibited a "retrogressive" manner of thinking towards the issue, said the CHR.


"We do not think that Ang Ladlad seeks accreditation to promote immorality in the country, but to give a voice to a marginalized sector to push for further protection of their rights," she said in a strongly worded statement on Sunday.

"It is a fact that gays are often objects of discrimination through ridicule, contempt and various forms of violence just as this decision clearly illustrates," De Lima continued.
In an eight-page resolution dated Nov. 11, the Comelec's Second Division said Ang Ladlad's petition "must fail" despite the group's fulfillment of election requirements, because the practice of homosexuality offended morals. It also said the group was "tolerating immorality."


"Homosexuality is not a counterculture... Homosexuals are part of the Filipino family and unavoidably must be part of our politics," said De Lima, a known election lawyer before she was appointed human rights chief.

She also pointed out that no governmental policy characterized homosexuality as neither illegal nor immoral, citing the Universal Declaration Human Rights, which stated that "all are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law."


"There is and can be no basis in law to deny the registration of the party, directly or indirectly on the grounds of homosexuality... to make assertions based on their homosexuality is patently discriminatory,” she said.
The CHR is set to file a motion for intervention so that it could formally present its views, insights and position on the issue as a "premier" national human rights institution in the country.

"The rights of the lesbians, gays and bisexuals are a human rights issue,” she pointed out.

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George DeCarlo
908 342 1275 (cell)

I shall close with the information thqat we, and many members of the Order of St. Aelred are members of Ang LadLad

Professional Summary (When you get to be 81, there's a lot of things to add and maybe a lot forgotten,)
Amicus Missionaries of the Precious Blood, Veteran of the Korean War in Korea, former Latin teacher, (Louisville High School, Central Catholic High School, Canton Ohio), Journalist, father of the 8 most wonderful offspring in the world (who deserve a better father) , Business man (owner of 2 restaurants in Canton. Ohio), National Cursillo leader with Ralph Martin and Steve Clark, worked with Ralph Martin and Steve Clark in their developing the Life in the Spirit Seminar, served on Pastoral staff in MCC Detroit's early years, assistant pastor MCC Chicago, pastoral staff MCC Phoenix, Director of national Prison Ministry of UFMCC, Director (and Editor) of Publications for UFMCC, pastoral staff MCC Los Angeles, founder MCC's Cursillo style retreat movement, Pastor MCC Upland, pastor MCC Ventura, Administrative staff, professor,( International University, Los angeles, Union of ECU, Cincinnati, Ohio) clinical psycholgist on staff in Los Angeles, pastor MCC Auckland, New Zealand, founding pastor MCC Manila, founder The Order of St. Aelred, television guest on all popular Philippines shows regarding sex-positive theology, guest speaker for universities and organizations, founder and director of the Gay Men's Support Group, celebrant of hundreds of Holy Union sacramental weddings for same sex couples, retreat director for spiritual retreats, author of some 200 books and pamphlets on prayer, spirituality, and sex positive theology, bishop of the Cajholic Diocese of One Spirit, Philippines
,
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Personal Update for 81st Birthday

Well, I have been remiss. This is my first blog for several months, but since it is my 81st birthday, I thought I had better get my act together and stop all the other hyper activity and sit down and update you.

I picked you, because I just can’t have a personal contact with all the 2,887 on my Gmail contact list, and regretfully I have not looked at the Hotmail and Yahoo lists for a long time (not to mention my Facebook). And I already appreciate the advance birthday greetings from so many.

Uppermost on my mind is the surgery that my dear daughter Jane (who lives with her loving husband in Pontiac, Michigan) will be having on November 12, my 81st birthday. She will be having a non malignant tumor removed. At the same time, her youngest sister, my Mary, who lives with her husband in Palm Springs, is battling breast cancer. I indeed implore your prayers for these beloved ones of mine.

You wonder what hyperactivity keeps me so busy (ain’t I supposed to be at least semi-retired?). Well the work goes on, to my great delight, in several areas.

People keep coming to me from all over the archipelago for their wedding. Sometimes the wedding is in my little chapel; sometimes locally, sometimes in a far away city or resort in Luzon, and then sometimes in Mindanao. A Holy Union is a sacrament, so I consider it and deal with it as an important ministry of the church. It is not just a simple, “I pronounce + you…” It is an opportunity to discuss many important issues related to their relationship and commitment and the expression of their love in fitting ways. Some of my protégés and seminarians are equally enthusiastic about this ministry, and preparing to let me retire in the next 20 years.

Hospital work, bereavement, and counseling never ends, and it is indeed another joy to be there when being there is important to the individual.

Prayer time, wonderful refreshing prayer time with prayer companions, especially with my prayer companion, Argel, with members of the Order of St. Aelred, prayer and spiritual reading can never be neglected. I can’t brag about it, and wish there were more.

Meetings and tutorial sessions with seminarians in St. Aelred Seminary are always looked forward to. Their enthusiasm for learning, their eagerness for ministry is a joy to participate in. Some are attending other seminaries as well, and text or email me often to share new theological or scriptural insights they have experienced.

Because of our website, copious email comes in everyday, contacts, inquiries, questions, requests for prayers and counselling. (By the way, check my new domain, below, since Yahoo suddenly closed down Geocities.)

I am proud to be an Amicus (contact member) of the Precious Blood Missionaries with whom I gratefully remember spending so many years of my formation and early religious life, and I receive all their mailings and information about their vibrant ministry in today’s world and about my contemporaries in advanced ages. [So long ago the superiors did not understand about sexuality and they, suspecting that I was gay, that mysterious “thing” in those days, suggested I go back to the world and find a lovely wife, which I did. Nowadays, that same religious society has priests assigned to LGBT ministry, not as outcasts, but as Catholic men and women deserving Catholic ministry.]

I am proud to be associated with Bishop Jim Burch, presiding bishop of the Catholic Diocese of One Spirit, (who lives in Virginia) who has a vibrant heterosexual wedding ministry (especially for people who have been shunned or refused church weddings elsewhere).

I appreciate the ministerial support and friendship of my long time friend, Fr. Paul Breton in San Bernardino, CA. He not only sends us frequent updates on LGBT news from around the world, but is my personal advisor, in his wisdom and experience, on so many matters theological and pastoral.

I try every chance I get to worship, on Sunday, with my MCC friends in Manila, Quezon City, and now a new MCC in Cavite. Praise the Lord! Maybe when I was empowered by the Almighty Spirit of God to plant the first MCC in Manila on September 7, 1991, I did not have far reaching vision yet, but today when I see what the Lord is doing through vibrant young pastors in Manila, Quezon City, Dasmariñas, Cavite, and Baguio, I praise God that more or more of God’s beloved LGBT people are basking in God’s unconditional love and growing beautifully spiritually. I even take a little (hopefully not sinful) pride in the fact that three of the four young pastors were in one way or another protégés of mine.

I indulge, when I can, in watching Larry King Live. I do indeed attend, shall I say religiously, the daily mass on EWTN (either at 9 PM here or 6 AM). I have to listen to some sex-negative stuff all too often, but the beauty of the Mass, and even the parts they offer in Latin (I spent a dozen years of my life teaching Latin, and of course, love the language), is far more wonderful than worrying about the negative stuff.

Then there is time, hopefully every day, with my faithful partner of almost eleven years, always attentive to my needs and watchful of my excesses, although he is the one who is so devoted to his professional teaching career (preparation, etc), and his commendable regularity in yoga classes at the gym, that his “time together” is often more limited than mine, but that’s a good trade for having one of the best teachers anywhere. And his dear mother who lives with us three-fourths of the time, who is always praying when she is not cooking (and maybe while she is cooking). (I give her all the credit for my oversized stomach.)

Thanks to my wonderful ten years younger than I brother, Lon (Colonel Lon), who keeps me regularly in contact with my brothers and sisters by email. By the way, thanks to all who prayed for my brother Jim (four years younger) who is recovering nicely from his recent heart attack. Please keep my sister Marilyn, with her pacemaker, in your prayers.

In addition to the wonderful email contact from my dear Jane, the coach son, Rick, also keeps me posted on his life in Michigan and the athletic prowess of his sons, John and Jake.

If I ever entertain a thought about retiring, it’s to get more writing done. When I was in the Society of the Precious Blood (59 years ago), I published a mini biographical “novel” on the life of the founder, St. Gaspar del Bufalo. Now I want to finish in my lifetime a biographical novel on Dr. Jose Rizal, our national hero, my Filipino idol. And I want to write a biographical novel on the life of our beloved patron, St. Aelred of Rievaulx. All that’s in addition to more and more sex-positive material to enhance the 200 or so pieces I have already published.


God bless, in Friendship,
Richard


Our new website and information:

Fr. Richard R. Mickley, O.S.Ae., Ph.D.
Abbot
The Order of St. Aelred
St. Aelred Friendship Society
82-D Masikap Extension
Barangay Central, Quezon City
1100 Metro Manila, Philippines
Landline: 63 2 921 8273
Mobile: 63 920 9034909
E-mail: saintaelred@gmail.com
Website: http://webspace.webring.com/people/ms/saintaelred/index.html
E-group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saeffriends
Fr. Richard’s personal blog: http://richardrmickley.blogspot.com
Facebook
Plaxo
Friendster
Catholic Diocese of One Spirit (CDOS), Bishop Jim Burch, website: http://www.onespiritcatholic.org

Mortality

Mortality Raises its Lovely Head Again

Some of my Friends have a comment, when I speak of my impending death, of saying. “Father, God needs you so much here; you are immortal.”

Yes, but. Yes, I shall live forever with God. But right now I have received another wakeup call that the transition is impending.

Yesterday I happened to catch the Larry King Live show. He devoted the whole hour to Prostate Cancer. One after the other, well-known figures with prostate cancer were interviewed or spoken about. One spoken about was Merv Griffin. He was told he had prostate cancer, and he said, ”I am off to a Mediterranean Cruise on my Yacht.” He soon died of prostate cancer.

The other people interviewed heeded the advice to have early detection and early treatment and live longer and never die of prostate cancer. Colin Powel, Mayor Guiliani, Billy Graham, and so many others. The key is regular PSA tests after age 40. I have had PSA tests. The last one was so good, my doctor triumphantly announced, “You don’t have cancer.” But my sin is that that was a couple of years ago. So that is why I call the Larry King show a wake call. Tine for another PSA.

I could be like Merv Griffin, but there really is still work to do. A woman texted me the other day. “Father I am dying of a cerebral aneurism and would like to have my wedding with my long time partner before I die.” I replied I would cooperate with her in that, but, I said, “I am dying, too. I just don’t know when. Don’t we all start toward dying the day we were born, because we really are not immortal on this earth.?” She texted back, “But, father, you are needed so much. You are the only one who understands us.” When I saw her I explained that we have seminarians who are preparing, slowly, to take my place, do my work, so I have to try to die slowly.

The first wake up call was when President Aquino died this month of Colon Cancer. I wrote about that, and said since I was a colon cancer survivor, I should go and have my overdue check up (colonoscopy). So, here I sit facing mortality, and what am I going to do? Lord, if it is Thy will, let the seminarians finish first. I want to be with you, but if you have more work for me to do, help me not to waste my time while time shall last.

My prayer companion sent me some more beautiful prayers by email today. Because he is working out of town now, we can’t kneel down and pray together as frequently as we did when he was in town. But still it is joy to pray long distance in the prayers of Jim Cotter, Michel Quoist, St. Alphonsus Liguori – in addition to the Prayer Book he and I compiled together some time ago.

Then I remembered I had already done some reflections on mortality which I decided to share with him – and you – today.

Some thoughts on vocation and mortality and sexuality

[I intend to tape record these words for possible use in connection with my wake and funeral. God willing.]

God called me at an early age to be keenly interested in the things of God. Even when I was too young to go to church every Sunday, I begged to be allowed to go with my devout parents. When I was in the second grade, my first Holy Communion started me on a path of religious enthusiasm. It was my first spiritual awakening, and the beginning of a life-long devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.

In the fifth grade I defended my faith against an anti-Catholic public school teacher. When I was in the sixth grade, the death of Pope Pius XI and the election of Pope Pius XII sparked my interest in the works of the universal church. Little did I know then that a couple of decades later I would thrill to the excitement of receiving the blessing of Pope Pius XII borne past me on the historic Sedia Gestatoria used by popes then to be carried into the Great St. Peter’s Basilica, the largest church in Christendom, for the weekly general audiences.

At 13 my parents allowed me to make the decision to enter the minor seminary to begin to tread the path toward the goal to which I was called, the holy priesthood. I donned the simple black cassock with pride. This time it was the daily uniform of my vocation –even though for years I had been wearing it to perform the duties of an altar boy in my hometown – every chance I got – a service dear to my young heart, serving Mass before school in the morning (after milking the cow at home) and serving mass in the Hospice for elderly people on Saturdays.

In the seminary I knelt daily in private prayer before the Blessed Sacrament or in front of the altar of the Blessed Mother, beseeching help from heaven to persevere and push forward in my studies and in my formation for ordination to the holy priesthood. It was my focus, my obsession, the path along which I was nudged by the very Spirit of God calling me.

Every night in our community evening prayer we impressionable teenage seminarians prayed a gruesome prayer which remained powerful in my mind and memory – and motivation – to this day into my old age. I call it gruesome because by psychological standards, it is deemed depressing. Be that as it may, even though later I became a doctor of psychology, that prayer was like a beacon challenging and motivating me from then until now.

Life is short, and death is sure,
The hour of death remains obscure;
A soul you have, and only one,
If that be lost, all hope is gone;
Waste not your time, while time shall last,
For after death tis ever past.

Actually the prayer went on for paragraph after paragraph in our little community prayer book. But that’s the part that stuck with me to this day.

Now, I have been a workaholic all my life. Perhaps I was born that way, but that prayer fed the drive in me: “Waste not your time, while time shall last.” I saw 12 long years ahead of me – studies in preparation for the priesthood. I was imbued with the drive to do all I could at this moment and then be ready to do all I can the next moment. Today sixty some years later, I cannot say it has always been a virtue, but that same impulse has driven me all through the years.

Today, after three quarters of a century, and not every goal has been attained, I realize the life ahead is shorter than the life which has gone before, so all the more reason to “waste not your time, while time shall last.” Pope John Paul II must have been driven by the same divine impulse. He was blessing the people until mere hours before his death, perhaps minutes.

Years later in the major seminary a priest professor told us that “most of the people in mental hospitals are there because of religion or sex. “ That was food for thought for even my more mature young mind, now in my 20’s. But it worried me, because neither that professor (a Ph.D. in psychology) nor the other priest-professors were trained or equipped to guide us along the path of sanity in sex, which of course, then overlapped into the area of sanity in religion. The tension was great. We were too young, too unguided, to know that sanity in religion and sex comes from the proper integration of spirituality and sexuality. In fact that was an unheard of concept in those days. Because of what happened to me there and what happened to me as my life evolved, the focus of my ministry in later years was just that: for myself and others: remaining in the friendship of God while bringing into union God’s great gifts of spirituality and sexuality.

In the seminary I was a sexual person. I prayed to “be delivered from this plague.” The counseling I received could be summed up in “Don’t masturbate.” I tried and nearly went crazy trying to control my need to masturbate and living with my totally deflated self esteem each time I succumbed to what I had been taught to believe was an “unchristian, abominable, unspeakable sin.”

Because they did not understand my sexuality, because they did not know how to counsel me in my integration of sexuality and spirituality, they advised me to leave the religious order and get married and “all would be all right.” That was inadequate counseling, and, of course it did violence to the calling I had received from God.

I was obedient. I was an unquestioning Catholic and did what I was told. Eight times God gave me the profound gift of new life – the inestimable joy of the father driving the mother and baby home from the hospital and stopping to pray at the parish church and dedicating the child at the altar of the Blessed Mother to God’s care through the protection and prayers of Jesus’ mother.

I taught religion to high school students in my hometown and pursued a path that led me to many valuable spiritual encounters . The first deeply spiritual experience was the Cursillo, both as a local leader and as a national leader where I worked with Ralph Martin (who is today a well-known Catholic televangelist) and Steve Clark (who today is recognized as a popular charismatic author), to the Catholic Charismatic movement as a pioneer with Ralph Martin and Steve Clark (with them, working with them as they "invented" the Life in the Spirit Seminar), while they were American national leaders of that movement. Through these and other experiences, among which was the great privilege of working for many years with the Rev. Troy Perry, a gifted and sincere man of God, finally beginning to learn to shape my life into the one unified spiritual and sexual life that God gave me. And that, then, became the focus of my mission.

Along the way, I made a lot of sexual mistakes, trying to learn the hard way, by hit and miss, doing it wrong, hurting people, and trying to lead others before I mastered the wholesome truth of God’s beautiful plan for our lives.

That plan, of course is that God loves me and us – unconditionally, as we are, having given us our yearning for friendship with God and our yearning for friendship with others and for intimacy in companionship. It’s not, as I was implicitly taught: spirituality, yes; and sexuality, no. It’s spirituality, yes, and sexuality yes. (Even those who, by God’s grace are celibate, are sexual.) We are all sexual, even when we are not genital.

But into my forties, it was taking a psychological toll. I did not realize then, but with later acquired psychological understandings, I realize that not being equipped to handle my sexuality and my spirituality simultaneously caused me to have less than wholesome mental health. I began to drink. In 1971 I admitted that I was an alcoholic, so I went to a Christian Rehabilitation Center in the mountains of upstate New York – and it was an experience that profoundly affected my life -- to this day.

It was outstanding in many ways, but, besides never another drink, two prominent elements of the program had a lasting impact on my life. The first was a spiritual experience that bolstered and fortified my effort to “Waste not” my time. The community taught me the Jesus Prayer and introduced me to the “The Way of the Pilgrim,” a novel about the secret of unending prayer, the Jesus Prayer method of practicing the presence of God. That simple historic prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me,” became my constant companion for the rest of my life. It not only carried the seed of all prayer, but gave me the springboard for trying to maintain a spirit of ceaseless prayer, filling in every otherwise “idle” moment with the name of Jesus, and almost unwittingly holding me to the ideal of “waste not your time while time shall last.”

The second element of the program at Eastridge Recovery Community was its giving me a solid grounding in the Twelve Steps of the Twelve Step recovery program. For the rest of my life my own spiritual life was affected by the Twelve Steps, “the most effective spiritual program ever invented by human beings” it has been called. Over and over again, through the years, I was able to propose the Twelve Step program for others with various kinds of addictions, alcohol, drugs, sexual impulsiveness, overeating, smoking, etc.

In short it took me decades with the help of therapy, the recovery program, and prayer to begin to function with integrity in a wholistic wellbeing that finally put the pieces together with spirituality and sexuality fully functioning in balance and harmony with all components of my God-given humanity.

The seventies brought the works of more and more scholars of sex-positive theology to publication and to the forefront of helping create a whole new climate – an alternative climate to the ignorance of the past, an alternative to the untenable, unbelievable, unworkable, unsound sex-negative approaches of the past, which, sad to say, still persists in the minds and teachings of such saintly people as Pope John Paul II.
[More work on this paragraph]

Thank God, early on I was able not only to read some of these great new scholars, but to meet some of them in person. With the help of emerging great spiritual writers, who had the same struggles in their own lives, great theologians, like Father John McNeill, and Father Norman Pittenger who learned to live their life integrating their friendship with God with the love of neighbor. And they wrote books about it.

I had the privilege of meeting these great men personally, of reading their books, and eventually reading the books of other scholars who dismantled the harmful and destructive powers of sex-negative theology and set me (and their other readers) on the path of realizing that God is the author of sex-positive theology. And therein lies our liberation and salvation from the crippling effects of the monolithic negative approach, “Don’t masturbate, Don’t use condoms, Don’t have sex except when married to make babies, Don’t ever have sex in your whole life in any way if God brings you into this world as a homosexual.” When i realized I could be out of the shackles of this moral slavery, I sae my mission to unshackle as many as came to me.

Well, before I was truly able to live a responsible sexuality myself and then teach it to others, I was already nearly fifty. I wrote and published my first book on the subject when I was 47. It helped hundreds begin to understand their sexuality, but even then I was still making sexual mistakes in my own life, and it was more than a decade later that God led me to synthesize theory and practice and make spirituality and sexuality united in the path toward friendship with God and friendship with people, responsibly dealing with the normal sexuality God gave me. I was a poor one to set myself up as a teacher of others, not as totally unlearned in sexuality as my priest professors of bygone years, but still searching for an authentic message.

Through the Order of St. Aelred, the very teachings of St. Aelred, the principles on which the St. Aelred Friendship Society is founded, I came to realize that finally God was using me authentically for an authentic message of the integration of spirituality and sexuality.

I did not set myself up as a moral judge of the spirituality or sexuality of others. The gift God gave me was to reach out a hand of understanding to as many of God’s children as God led to me and speak to them of God’s unconditional love, not in a litany of “Don’ts,” but in the warm and embracing and accepting arms of the God who offers them total Friendship, and urges them to live in friendship with one another. My prayer was that certainly some of God's beloved children could be spared the pain and shame of moral slavery long before they were 50, and learn to live a wholisdtic life under the mantle of God's unconditional love.

For this, then, I am impelled to “waste not your time while time shall last, for after death tis ever past.” The work is not done until every gay and lesbian, every man, woman and child that God sends to me, hears of God’s love and can experience the all-loving embrace of God’s Friendship.

Then I won’t regret the moment to come when “after death, all is past.” When I have been called out of this body which God gave me, which took so many decades before I could appreciate it as the gift God had given, my body will decompose while I encounter the magnificence of the presence of God. Here as through a dark glass I saw and loved the One who loves me unconditionally. When you look upon my body slumbering in the coffin or stand over the grave which encloses my body, I will already be in the awesome state that I could only hope for here, could only begin to feel in your smile, in your friendship, in your love and encouragement. Yes, I felt it most intensely in your loving embrace, my beloved Simon, but each and every friend God gave me provided a foretaste of the embrace of God.

Yes, I have been released from my body to dwell in that place where I have the privilege of the beloved disciple, to lie with my head on the very heart of Jesus. And best of all, as I am united with my Beloved, nothing can separate me from you. I am with God. God is Love, and Joy, and Peace. I live in that state forever; and deep within you lies all the beauty and wonder of God’s love for you, God’s all-loving embrace of you. We are in the same embrace.

I am happier now than you can imagine. I was happy doing the work God privileged me to do to tell of God’s love. Even though you cannot imagine the full wonder of that Presence, as it was with me then, you can get glimpses of it in your love for one another, in precious moments contemplating the Presence of God, on earth, which I now enjoy in its full splendor.

You, too, will know this, will know what not even St. John (who had that great privilege of lying with his head on the heart of Jesus), could find words to describe. When you also put off the body to be with us forever, with us, your God, your loved ones, then time will no longer matter. With us, at last, you will feel we have never been apart. I don’t want to steal Jesus’ words, but I want to assure you, we are with you.

If you need anything, ask; I will hear you. If you look for me and call out to me, I will hear your thoughts. I will never be canonized through the rules of a prejudiced system. You are already totally eligible for the same wonderful experience of union with God, where you are now, and where you will be forever, not through canonization, but through the will of our ever-loving God. You can see me, you can experience God all around you. I am with you wherever you are, I am with God and God is everywhere.

Thus, my dear friend, do not regret the times when you did not have a chance to be with me when I perhaps would have wanted it. That is bygone. Don’t think of me as dead. Actually, I am more alive than ever before. I used to be lazy sometimes. Now energy is automatic. The death I experienced did not kill me. It merely saw me through to the destination I was seeking all these years. Life there was but a moment, like a dream in which I sought what was hoped for. Now hope has given way to the real life, the real vision, the total experience of Love. In that Love I love you forever.

When your moment comes to make the change from the veiled experience to the beauty of total happiness, we will be together hand in hand, or arm in arm, or heart to heart in a special way, for we will be one in the very awesome presence of God.

So, think of me when you see the gifts of God. Think of me when you think of the gifts God has given you; think of me when God gives you a chance to tell someone of God’s all-embracing unconditional love. That was my mission. I don’t regret it. I rejoice in it. Now I know it was truly the Truth. Look for me in everything in which our God has had a hand. You know that I am with you because you will know the Love, and the Peace, and Joy of God. And I am with God and with you. I love you.

Tita Cory, colon cancer, kalayaan

From the morning of August 1, I have watched the coverage whenever possible. Today beginning at 9 A.M. with the beautiful concelebrated Pontifical Requiem Mass at the Manila Cathedral with former presidents, the vice president, and dozens of bishops and other prominent people of the country (and thousands more outside the cathedral), I have been glued to the television all day for the Salamat at Paalam (Thank you and Goodbye) for former President Cory Aquino.

President Aquino was president in 1991 when I arrived to answer my calling to serve God’s people in the Philippines.

I first heard of her during the time of the assassination of her husband, Ninoy (to eliminate a strong threat to the Marcos dictatorship), and then I heard more when she led the EDSA revolution which ended the Marcos dictatorship. I remember watching that whole saga of a people on television in a far away land, never dreaming that I would be called to that very land as later.

I remember being in the crowd of hundreds of thousands several times when she attended events at the Quirino Grandstand.

My fondest memories of President Aquino were from my several visits to Malacañang while she was president, and she graciously entered into prayer with the prayer group I was a member of, and I will never forget her kneeling down and allowing us to pray over her and some of her cabinet members.

Then her death from colon cancer brought back memories of my colon cancer in 1993 a year after she humbly stepped down from the presidency and turned over the office to President Fidel Ramos. (Anther president I first met in church and got his autograph, and then met many times while he was president).

It reminded me that I have been a colon cancer survivor, by the grace of God, for 16 years. I know full well that cancer can return at any time. I have been reluctant to make the expenditure needed for a proper colon exam. Now I know that it requires anesthesia from the drug that they used to kill Michael Jackson. Pray for God’s will.

It reminded me that life is short and death is sure and the hour of death remains obscure. Cory was 76. God has given me 80 years and allowed me to continue serving the people who are often denied church services.

I was brought to tears as I heard speaker after speaker describe the virtues of Tita Cory, so loved, trusted, and admired by the people of the country she restored freedom to. Lord, I prayed, that I may learn from her example.

It reminded me that, I must continue to persevere in my mission to bring to our people freedom from moral slavery, that I must display the integrity and moral courage that will be an example to our people to recognize the truth of God’s unconditional love and turn to Jesus; turn away from anything that would separate them from God’s love and living in friendship with God and with each other.

I was reminded again of that prayer we prayed in the seminary when I was 13 years old, “A soul you have and only one; if that be lost all hope is gone; waste not your time while time shall last, for after death tis ever past.” At 13, death seemed so far away. At 80 it does not seem so elusive. But the same axiom urges me on: waste not your time.

The work must go on. I thank God for the great grace, the great gift of my calling, the privilege to announce the unfailing love of our God through the Son Jesus Christ, our Friend.

After 18 years in the Philippines, I had an opportunity to speak at the end of June for the MCC Baguio Gay and Lesbian Pride Mass. In my pride, a significant thing for me was that MCC Baguio is the third MCC in the Philippines to bring the message of God’s unconditional love to the Filipino LGBT people since I founded the first church on September 7, 1991 while Tita Cory was still president.

From left to right: Art Ventayen (MCC Manila), myself, Myke Sotero (MCC Baguio), and CJ Agbayani (MCC Quezon City)

Another point of pride for me was that all three pastors of the three MCC churches in the Philippines concelebrated the Pride Mass at which I brought the message (which was published here last month).

Another point of pride for me was that each of these three pastors has been in one way or another a protégé of mine over the years I have been here. After I published the previous blog, I received a photo of myself with the three pastors. I am posting that photo here.

From St. Aelred we learn that if God is Love, God is Friendship.


Thankful to Be a Priest

Father Richard R. Mickley, O.S.Ae., Ph.D., abbot of the St. Aelred Friendship Society, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of One Spirit. (Written in 2008)

Leaning on the threshold of my 80th birthday, I have been thinking of the things I am thankful for. Among many persons and things I am thankful for, I am thankful to be a priest in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church of Jesus Christ.

By the time I was 10 years old, I was sure God was calling me to be a priest. And by the grace of God, there was a sign. I wanted very much to be an altar boy, but in those days altar boys had to memorize a long list of Latin prayers. Memorizing was always a problem for me — and now in Latin! (Years later I became a Latin teacher, but at the age of 10, it was indeed a challenge.)

With the grace of God and the patience of the senior altar boy, who was assigned to teach me, Stewart Sidell (later Dr. Stewart Sidell, M.D.), I learned all those Latin prayers by heart — and we weren’t allowed to use cue cards. When the priest said in Latin, “I will go unto the altar of God,” it was my cue to respond in Latin, “Ad Deum Qui laetificat juventutem meam…to God who gives joy to my youth….”

I felt that joy then, and really forever after as God led me, guided me, directed me through a long, sometimes circuitous, sometimes road-blocked path to the day when I would say officially, “I go unto the altar of God…”

I praise and thank God for the calling and the joy of sharing in the priesthood of Jesus Christ. What an awesome responsibility — to have the children of God turn to one, not only for God’s blessing, but for guidance on the path to union with God.

The privilege of standing at the altar and praying those words Jesus chose to make it possible for the priest to bring the very presence of Jesus on the altar and to be united with his friends. That privilege alone makes the priesthood an unbounded gift of God. Each of the thousands of times I have stood at the altar and prayed those words of Jesus, “This is My Body,” I have been filled with awe by the power of God acting through me.

And what a joy to officiate as a priest at Baptism, and to give assurance to God’s children that God forgives them when they confess their failings to God, and to bring the message of God’s unconditional love to all God’s people with no exceptions, and to be the one who anoints the hand and holds the hand of one who is about to depart this world and live forever in the eternal embrace of God’s friendship. And, yes, for me to experience over and over the joy of proclaiming God’s blessing for those who come together in love for a wedded and holy union. And the great privilege of passing on the holy priesthood in apostolic succession to God’s chosen priests.

Late in life, through the trust and kindness of Bishop James Burch, I was honored with the fullness of the priesthood by ordination with apostolic succession as a bishop in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church of Jesus Christ, and grateful as I am for that opportunity to serve God’s people, no privilege will ever surpass the privilege of offering one Mass as a priest of God.

Even as I strive conscientiously to assume the very personality of the ever-loving, ever-giving Jesus Christ whom I serve, I can never be sufficiently thankful for the most sacred trust and privilege and responsibility of being “another Christ.” To God I commend all those men, women, children, gay, lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual down through the years whom God has given me the privilege of serving in some way for well over a half a century.

Thanks be to God.

Baguio Pride Mass 2009

I had the privilege of speaking and presiding at the Pride Mass offered as part of the 3rd Baguio Pride Week celebration on June 27, 2009.

The Concelebrants of the Mass were three dedicated ‘servants of God with whom I have worked for many years. And, indeed, I was proud as a grandfather (knowing that I should claim no credit for their dedication and zeal and hard work) attending a mass celebrated by three dedicated ministers who had been over the years protégés of mine in one way or another.

The Rev. Ceejay Agbayani has been with MCC for many years in Manila. Several years ago he took up residence in Union Theological Seminary, where I was proud to sponsor him for several years in a humble way and visit him as he pursued his studies. When he received his Masters in Divinity (Theology), he was ordained by MCC, and proceeded to found MCC Quezon City where he has been pastoring for more than two years now.

Art Ventayan has been a faithful member of MCC ever since I took him to worship there in 1997 after he had been worshipping with me in Marikina until I moved from there. Over the years he has been active in the LGBT community as well as a never failing member of MCC Manila. When I talked to him about his selection as Pastoral Leader of MCC Manila, he replied in his humble way, “I did not know I was next in line.”

Myke Sotero has long felt a calling to serve God and the LGBT community. A long time member of the Order of St. Aelred, he eagerly got involved with the efforts to start MCC Metro Baguio. He was installed as Pastoral Leader at the Pride Mass June 27, 2009. He is attending theological seminary in Baguio in preparation for professional ministry.


Baguio speech, Queer Pride Mass, 2009

Why Do We Have a Queer Pride Mass?
“Life, Love, Freedom: One Pride, One Struggle”
Fr. Richard R. Mickley, OSAe., Ph.D.

At one point in my life, as Assistant Director of Pro Football’s Hall of Fame in Ohio, I had occasion to go to civic groups and colleges to present films of pro football’s Super Bowl games for interested audiences.

Little did I ever dream that later in my life I would be going to television shows, universities and civil society groups in the Philippines to speak on sex-positive thinking.

Then, I spoke as a sports enthusiast. Today I work as a psychologist and priest to bring peace, hope, and salvation to hundreds, perhaps thousands who have been immersed in moral slavery. Think about it. Slavery – moral slavery. More about that later.

In ministry with LGBT people, the work of the priest and psychologist merge. This is because a big challenge of the priest and psychologist is to counteract the ill effect of moral slavery. This is done by changing from the binding chains of sex-negative thinking to the liberating light of sex-positive thinking.

Years ago, in my abnormal psychology class in undergraduate school, the professor introduced the subject by informing us that most people are in mental hospitals because of sex or religion or both.

In our work in the LGBT community, we see a lot of people adversely affected by the combination of religion and sexuality. Because of the type “religi0n” teachings they have been subjected to, many people have a warped reaction to sexuality. Not being able to handle this kind of interpretation of religion and sexuality, they often get all twisted up psychologically.

A powerful example of this is seen in the effect of Bagong Pagasa, Exodus and those groups which try to use religion to change people from homosexual to heterosexual. They use religious threat; some call it religious torture; others call it religious brainwashing. It just does not work. I have seen in three countries where I have worked that it does not work.

All too often this method leads to suicide or extreme confusion about what is religion and what is sexuality, and how do religion and sexuality intersect in real life? The frustration results from a false confusing picture about what is religion, and what is sexuality. The founders of Exodus recognized this several years ago in a speech at MCC General Conference and apologized to the world for all the suicides and messed up lives they had caused. This is documented on internet in the following words

In 1979, Exodus International's co-founder Michael Bussee and his partner Gary Cooper quit the group and held a life commitment (wedding) ceremony together and… made a public apology for their roles in Exodus.[8]

They had tried to use religious threats and persuasions to change LGBT to straight. In the long run, that’s why we have to deal with both religion and sexuality in this matter. That’s why for nineteen years we have celebrated an annual Queer Pride Mass in the Philippines.

The bottom line is that religion and sex do not merely intersect

For those who choose to have religion, a healthy life integrates religion and sexuality. For them, a healthy life makes religion and sex compatible, working together for a fulfilled life here and perfectly OK for the goal of heaven.

Even for those who choose to not practice a religion, a healthy life must be liberated from the ill effects of moral slavery upon a person’s life. And, to be sure, the life of every LGBT person I have ever met has been negatively impacted by false ideas of how religion and sex interact in life.

Let’s look at a few concrete examples of this phenomenon. The phenomenon is the way moral slavery can take control over my life, over the normal natural existence of sexuality in my life; and of course it comes from the sex-negative teachings of churches.

This, then, was what led the pioneering work of Rev. Troy Perry to give the world MCC in 1968, one year before the Stonewall riots. In his heart Troy knew it was time for people to come out of moral slavery to the promised land of God’s unfailing and unconditional love.

Let’s look at the first example of moral slavery: many young people are nearly driven crazy by church teachings that masturbation is a very nasty shameful sin.

They want to hear what religion is saying, but their very nature, their very psychological being, and what we now know as their very normal self tells them: if masturbation is sinful and ugly and shameful, why do I find it so irresistible, so much a part of the needs of my personhood at this time in my life.

That dilemma pulls them in two directions – with no help from religion. For straight guys, it may seem less shameful to make a baby out of sexual “need” than to masturbate.

That’s when they need somebody who can help them integrate religion and sexuality in their life. Great thinkers, theologians, priests, professors, doctors have led the way in explaining a sex-positive approach to life. Rev. Troy Perry, Fr. Norman Pittenger, Fr. John McNeill and dozens of others have shown us the way.

The whole LGBT world has a tremendous debt of gratitude to the Rev. Troy Perry who had brought the Love of God for Gays and Lesbians out of the closet by founding MCC a year before Stonewall. I had the great privilege of working directly with Rev. Perry for many years, in his office, in his churches.

I have been able to take the books, the thinking, the teachings of Rev. Perry, Fr. Pittenger, Fr. McNeill, and develop a sex-positive approach to lead victims of moral slavery in the Philippines out of these chains of shame and frustration.

There is no justification in the Bible for condemning masturbation. This condemnation, this requirement for Catholics to admit masturbation in the confessional has caused inestimable harm, not only to self esteem, but to the very spiritual and mental health of countless millions of its victims. In short masturbation is a harmless, normal, human function.

Another moral slavery has to do with condoms. It all stems from the very negative view that sex is “bad” unless it is to produce children. The Catholic teaching is that sex is bad unless it is open to the reproduction of children. Of course, condoms would prevent that. Therefore condoms are forbidden, even to prevent AIDS.

But in sex positive theology, as succinctly explained by the famous theologian, Fr. Norman Pittenger, all sex is good – if it is not harmful or forceful. That replaces the sex negative approach all sex is bad that is not open to reproduction of children. Then when condoms were discovered to be an effective prevention of transmitting the HIV virus, the church still clung to its “no condoms” teaching. You and I know that a couple with six kids whom they can’t afford to feed or send to school would be sinful not to use condoms to prevent more starving kids. They would be much better off, morally, spiritually, physically, financially, logically if they would use condoms, and surely God would want that. But wait a minute: the church says, “No problem, just solve it all with ‘no sex.’” That is indeed sex negative and indeed abnormal for anybody, but especially for a married couple, living and sleeping together.

Then there is the moral slavery to the rule that sex is OK only for heterosexual married couples. No room for masturbation or premarital sex, no room for LGBT couples, only sex that is open to making babies.

Liberation from moral slavery involves realizing that sex is also instituted by the Creator for companionship. This is seen even in the Bible, for those who look to the Bible for answers as I do. In creating the second human being, God not only created a mate to “mate with” for populating the earth with human beings, but God is also quoted as saying, “It is not good for a person to be alone.” Sure, populating the earth was a necessity at that time, but God also recognized that companionship is a human necessity.

Let’s look at one more moral slavery. LGBT people are not allowed any sex, in any way, at any time, in their entire life.

Whew! Scientists tell us people do not choose to be LGBT. They are born that way. They do not choose to have a loving attraction to a person of the same gender. That attraction is a wonderful gift, given to them by the Creator.

And that is the same Creator who said it is not good for a person to be alone. Of course heterosexual mating was necessary in the beginning to produce the children of the earth. But, Christians who believe in evolution, and there is no reason not to, believe that same-sex attraction was part of the massive evolution that has taken place across the face of creation over the millions of years. That may be easier for some to believe than to swallow the idea that we once looked like monkeys.

Surely, a just God, a loving God, a caring God, would not allow or cause a significant percentage of the people of creation to come into this world with same-sex attraction and then order them never ever in any way to enjoy the sexual gift given to them. That is very sex negative. And so ridiculous that it is blasphemous to accuse God of it.

Sex positive thinking, on the other hand, opens the door for loving companionship, for committed sex. Father Pittenger says that all sex is good, but loving sex is better, and committed, long term, loving sex is best.

Most of all, the bottom line is “Life, Love, Freedom: One Pride, One Struggle”
Sex positive thinking frees us to be who we are – from the hand of God. And then the right to love as God constitutes us to love. And that includes the basic human right to marry the one we love.

The most basic concept behind the Queer Pride Mass is the unflinching, unfailing, unconditional love of God for each and every LGBT person in the world. The 8th Chapter of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans tells it completely and clearly. For those who honor the Bible, as I do, that’s the answer. Paul says, “There is no power anywhere that can separate us from the love of God.” That means no church, no civil authority, no prophet can stop God from loving you and me. Nobody, anywhere. We are offered and entitled to God’s love. It is ours for the accepting. God’s arms are held out in embracing love. All we need to do is hug God in return.

That’s just a sample of sex negative and sex positive thinking.

In my own life, I had joined the left-leaning Gay Liberation Front which blossomed 40 years ago after the historic Stonewall moment in 1969. I had opportunities to participate in the huge Pride Marches in Los angels, to take part in the longest Pride March in history, a weeklong trek from the Mexican border through the desert to Phoenix, Arizona. Then I was blessed to be able to work with Rev. Perry, meet Fr. Pittenger and Fr. McNeill, and to write some books on the sub ject, and to teach sex positive theology in the MCC international seminary in Los Angeles.

After 17 years of liberating work in the gay and lesbian communities of Detroit, Chicago, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, I was working as a sex-positive priest and psychologist in New Zealand when I heard that there was not one voice publicly speaking out for the religious rights of LGBT people in the Philippines. In my heart I knew the LGBT people of the Philippines had the right to rightfully claim the unconditional love of God, the right to worship God, the right to be unchained from the moral slavery that drug them down to underserved shame and guilt complexes. They had a right to stable wholistic lives, and somebody had to introduce them to the basic rights that are theirs.

I came here to check it out in June 1991, and I was invited to start a work in the Philippines by a petition of 43 LGBT people who wanted to hear a voice speaking out for them. I resigned from my pastorate in New Zealand with its salary and perks, and came here to answer that calling in September 1991 with no salary, no perks and set up MCC Philippines, the first openly gay and lesbian activist organization in the country to begin the task of liberating LGBT people through sex-positive thinking. I have been privileged to follow that calling for the past 18 years.

In early 1994 Oscar Atadero, an officer in MCC, brought up to me that it was the 25th year anniversary of Stonewall, when gay liberation came out of the closet in America. We talked and decided that it was time for gay liberation to come out of the closet in the Philippines. He was part of the founding of the LGBT activist organizati0n, Pro Gay, in 1992. He arranged that Pro gay and MCC Manila, the organization I had founded in 1991, would co-sponsor the first Gay and Lesbian Pride March and Rally. Oscar Atadero was the real author of that historic event which took place virtually 15 years ago today on June 26, 1994. I gave the keynote address and celebrated the Queer Pride Mass, and we later found out it was the first Gay and Lesbian Pride March in Asia. I had celebrated the first LGBT Pride Mass in the Philippines and delivered the first-ever public LGBT Pride Speech on June 26, 1991 at the main altar of the Cathedral of the Holy Child in Manila with a future bishop and a Methodist Pastor concelebrating, and 50 some people in attendance.

For months after the Pride March in 1994, there was massive media attention to that march and to the growing gay and lesbian movement. We appeared on Mel and Jay and numerous television shows, and, in short, the movement was off and running.

More and more gay and lesbian organizations sprung up. After Reachout AIDS Foundation and Jomar Fleras sponsored large and colorful marches in Malate in 1996, 1997, and 1998, we formed Task Force Pride as a network of more than a dozen organizations plus individuals to carry on the marches in 1999, and TFP, until now, produces the annual Pride March in Manila.

I am very proud that Baguio is celebrating its third Pride March this weekend and I salute you people who are working so hard to pull it off.

I am proud of Rev. Ceejay Agbayani who has gone to seminary for years and been ordained and founded MCC Quezon City.

I am proud of Myke Sotero, your new MCC Baguio pastoral Leader, who has given his all to this work and is enrolled in a theological seminary for this work.

I am proud of William and all you brave and hardworking pioneers who are establishing MCC Baguio. Never forget the noble liberating work you are called to, setting LGBT people free from the chains of sex-negative thinking so they can enjoy wonderful, clean, and beautiful sex-positive thinking and living.

I challenge you all to work together, to collaborate, to support each other’s programs. Nationally, get behind Ang Ladlad, work with other LGBT organizations.

With the help of John Maxwell, ask yourself some questions about your involvement in LGBT liberation in Baguio.

Do you really have a dream for our people?

Ask yourself: does my dream for the LGBT community compel me to work for it?

Do I have a strategy; (in my group and in my personal ways of helping) do I have a strategy for my dream?

Am I willing to pay the price for my dream to come true for the LGBT people of Metro Baguio?

Does my dream fulfill only my ambition, or does it really benefit the community?

Does my dream, does my work, collaborate, cooperate with and help fulfill our common dream, our common hope, and our common destiny?

The Jaycee Creed says, “Service to humanity is the best work of life. Our work is liberating our people, advancing justice and full human rights for our people. Ask yourself: Is that my dream? It begins right here, right where we are, with an attitude of love and cooperation with the others who have this dream.

The time of liberation has come. It is time for the theme of your celebration this week: “Life, Love, Freedom: One Pride, One Struggle.” It is time to live in freedom and dignity the life and love and wonderful gift of sexuality our Creator has given us.


Introduction of Fr. Richard

Fr. Richard R. Mickley, OSAe, Ph.D. is Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of One Spirit Philippines, Abbot of the Order of St. Aelred, a priest and psychologist.

He has been in LGBT ministry for 38 years in the United States, New Zealand, and in the Philippines for the last 18 years. He introduced weddings for same-sex couples to the Philippines in 1991, with his founding of the first openly gay and lesbian activist organization, MCC Manila. He founded the Order of St. Aelred in 1995.

He is a veteran of the Korean War in Korea, a former university dean and professor, and was a successful restauranteur for several years. He worked as a psychologist in Los Angeles. His doctorate is in Clinical Psychology and his masters in Counseling Psychology for Gays and lesbians.