No offense meant to the 3rd and 4th sexes, my friends and I have been noticing that their population has grown exponentially. Needless to say, a lot of them are very successful and famous like Boy Abunda, Rajo Laurel, Rustom Padilla or Bb Gandanghari.
When I was little, the only known gay in our town was “B____”. He went around the poblacion between 2 pm to 4 pm selling ginataan and other kakanin which he cooked or prepared. I remember he had a big tummy and sometimes his shirt was short, his pusod could be seen.
He was referred to in street lingo as syoke or bakla. My mother referred to him as binabae. My father referred to him as “alanganin or syoke”.
The population in our town has of course grown leaps and bounds and so has the number of gays. They are no longer called syoke, binabae or alanganin. They are now called bakla, bakuling, bakling, badaff, bading, syoking, etc. Those with finesse refer to them as simply gays.
When I was in college, they were referred to as homosexuals. I noticed that this word is only used nowadays in clinical terms.
During last year’s fiesta in Binangonan, I got stucked in the vehicle for 2 hours because of the pagoda. Traffic was in a standstill because the roads were blocked. I got excited to see the pagoda. I have good memories of every fiesta and pagoda in our town.
40 years ago (there you go, my age is revealed), women danced during the pagoda. They wore colorful baro’t saya or Maria Clara. The men wore barong or kamisichino with colorful bandanas that matched the ladies’ baro’t saya.
At last year’s fiesta, A lot of gays joined in the pagoda. When I said a lot, it’s really AAAAAA LLLOOOOTTT! They didn’t dance, they poured water on passersby. They wore skimpy shorts and wet sandos. They screamed, giggled and flirtatiously walked pakendeng-kendeng.
My friend Caling Young told me the other night that when she watched the concert of Kylie Minogue at the Araneta Center, there were so many gays watching, screaming and so kilig with the male back-up dancers. She said she noticed that there were so many of them everywhere.
Caling has an interesting theory. She said real men turn into gays because of chicken.
The chickens we bought from the markets, grocery stores were all laden with steroids. These steroids affected our hormones. Men are transformed into “women” without their consent and against their will. she now buys organic or free range chicken.
Do not feed your husbands and sons regular chicken. Puro steroids yun.
Today I bought some chicken. I remembered Caling’s theory so I bought free range.
