gay and loving it

Written last month as an introduction for the JCI bid book of our org "ilang ilang" for the best sports event. Thanks to Madam Pres Kaye for editing..

THE Agilympics


The term gay was originally used, until well into the mid 20th century, primarily to refer to feelings of being "carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy"; it had also come to acquire some connotations of "immorality" as early as 1637.
Bading as they call it in the Tagalong language, Bayot in Cebuano and Agi in Ilonggo. Gays as we call them, in spite of their contribution to the society, their talents and accomplishments, there are still a lot of prejudice and discrimination attached to them. Thanks to their efforts and some open minded individuals or groups who have paved the way of their acceptance, the third sex has indeed gone a long way. Gone is the dark-age where homosexuality is considered a metal illness. We have gay rights movement not only in prominent countries of Europe and US but around the world. Yes, there are still places who have remained conservative and closed minded about these issues and occurrence like some Middle East and other Muslim countries but gay rights have been an emergence in which people not only tolerated and accepted but embraced in a general sense. We have annual gay rights parades here and elsewhere. In 1996, the Philippines staged the first ever gay parade which is also the first in Asia. The event is celebrated yearly since then.
In business, arts and mostly in the entertainment industry, there are several names we could come up who are prominent and successful gays. In the country we have designer Renee Salud, entrepreneur and designer, Inno Sotto, make up artist, Fanny Serrano and Ricky Reyes and the list goes on. Of course who would fail to mention the very controversial celebrity /entertainer BeBe Gandanghari who recently emancipated and claimed her “self confessed birth right of being a woman!” Save for that which created a spark of controversy both from among his/her peers and the public, they are respected and valued in their own fields. However in some scale the third sex is still a very marginalized and discriminated group especially in sports. These brothers (or sisters as they preferred to be called) are not given due recognition much less given an opportunity to excel. They are not given an avenue to demonstrate their talents and capabilities.

The Agilympics (Agi is actually a local term for gay or bading) was conceptualized in this premise. It is a showcase of talent through sports and other equally challenging activities. The JCI “Ilang-Ilang” together with the office of the Hon. Julienne Baronda, councilor of Iloilo city thought of giving gays the chance to showcase their talents on one Olympics like event that was called “Agilympics (Gaylympics). Councilor Jam, being the chair on the Committee for women and children is an active Vice President for Community of JCI Iloilo “Ilang-Ilang”. Together, the JCI Iloilo “Ilang-Ilang” and the Iloilo city government facilitated the event. With the catch phrase, “Be there, Be a Part and Be counted”, the Gaylympics was born. It was a one day activity especially conceptualized for the members of the third sex in Iloilo. It was designed to acknowledge the contribution of gays in our country.