Liberation, freedom, justice Chapter II

The meetings in the coffee shop continued, and the group grew larger. It was not quite a team yet, but it had leaders and a lot of brilliant men and women.

When they started the meeting, Impatient Gay indicated he wanted to say something. All listened.

It turned out he only had a question.

Impatient Gay: “Every night I go to bed wondering what can we do beyond holding a yearly ‘march’?”

Rev. Gay: “Do for what? What is your objective?”

Impatient Gay, “For liberation, freedom, and justice, of course.”

Lez Beautiful: “That sounds good. Sounds like that is what we need. But liberation from what? Freedom for what? Justice about what?

Gay Pro, “I like what I read in Quibuyen about Rizal’s goals for liberation, freedom, and justice for the people of the Philippines.”

First Lez, “I like it, too. But Liberation from what? We know what Rizal wanted. He wanted liberation from all the oppression of the Spanish colonial masters. What do we want liberation from?”

Almost a chorus: “We want liberation from heterosexist oppression and domination of every facet of our life.”

First Lez, “But what do we want freedom for?”

Gay Blade, “Oh, we could be serious about Rizal’s ideas on strategy.”

Trans, “We can be serious, and should be serious, I think, about Rizal’s strategies, but the questions of Freedom for what? And justice about what are still unanswered. I could say, ‘freedom to dress as I want.’ Would that satisfy everybody?”

Prof Gay, “Of course, I want that for you and for all of us, but you are right. We cannot move forward until we clearly identify our goals and form a strategy, and make an action plan.”

Gay Blade, “I still think Rizal’s idea of grassroots change and action is the best one. We now have barangays which they didn’t have in Rizal’s time. We could start with all the barangays in the country and get some real grassroots action.”

Gay Pol, “You are young, and you are full of enthusiasm. Of course that takes a big action plan to tackle such a big proposal. You see, we have not even identified what we would do in all the barangays in the country. The political analysts tell us that that is the secret to Barack Obama’s rise to power. Let’s remember that.”

Tran 2, “How can the barangays help with liberation? Liberation from what? In some places white is dominant. In some places Christian is dominant. In some places Islam is dominant. Everywhere heterosexist ideology is dominant. Is there any hope for breaking out of the domination that affects gays, lesbians, transgenders, and bisexuals?”

Pastor Gay, “I saw a moving segment of Oprah in which she showed some powerful examples of dealing with prejudice.”

Prof Gay, “Are you coming around to suggesting that marching once a year is not enough to counteract prejudice. What else is there?”

Lez Leader, “So that’s the beginning of our Action Plan. On page 19, Quibuyen quotes a letter of Rizal to del Pilar, “I am assiduously studying the events in our country. I believe that only intelligence can redeem us, in the material and in the spiritual… It is better to be tied by the ankles than elbow to elbow.”

Gay Blade, “We LGBT. All of us, are tied elbow to elbow now. What can we do to start getting loose? Shall we just wait and march once a year for another ten years?”

Bi, “Rizal once wrote to Blumentritt,…’When the Filipinos shall prefer to die rather endure miseries any longer, then I too shall advocate violent means. I cannot believe that you…would like to advise your good friend to endure all and to act like a cowardly man, without courage.”

Gay Blade, “Mabuhay Rizal. Them’s my kinda words. What are going to do to apply that to LGBT liberation?”

Wise Lez, “We have always thought there was nothing we can do but march like LGBT have been doing ever since 1970. And marching.”

Bi, “Rizal also wrote, “Spain will never learn.”

Gay Prof, “That’s a valid observation on his part. We have learned a little more sociology now. We have people right here in this coffee shop with us now who have degrees in community organization.”

Pastor Gay, “On that Oprah show, a gay teenager was beaten and left for dead by a racist who shouted, ‘Kill the faggot.’ At the end of the show, many years after the beating, the two were on Oprah telling how they were working together in the same organization to combat prejudice.”

Lez 3, “Do we have organizations like that?”

Gay Leader, “We have non-government organizations working for the liberation, freedom, and justice of indigenous people. Some of their members are right here. Why can’t we take some of the same principles and apply them to our LGBT cause of liberation, freedom, and justice?”

Gay Blade, “How would we do it. I am young. I am willing to learn.”

Gay Prof, “You got something there. We could start by educating ourselves on how to combat the ignorance of prejudice.”

Gay One, “We could study Malcom Gladwell – ‘Blink’ and ‘The Tipping Point.’”

Lez Sociologist, “There is already a fabulous program in existence, which also mentioned in that same Oprah show. It is called IAT, the Implicit Association Test: it’s a Demonstration test from Project Implicit, which gauges prejudicial attitudes or beliefs about certain groups of people. That’s one instrument we could use to educate ourselves and begin to develop a far reaching project.”

Gay Blade, “Then we could take it to every barangay in the country and wipe out prejudice.”

Gay leader, “Wow that’s great. Let’s see if we can develop a step by step action plan, that Rizal would be proud of and we can move beyond yearly marches.”

Lez Leader, “Let’s organize some study and report groups.”