Below is an excerpt from the article published by the Philippine Collegian.

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Turning Point: Pink propaganda

(This article was published in print in issue 27 of the Philippine Collegian on 04 March 2011.)

by Gino N. Chang

“It is okay to be homosexual, just don’t practice it.” I cannot remember who said this, but I am sure I want to put a dent on his head.

A professor claimed that the Church accepts homosexuality now. I raised my eyebrows. Centuries of pointless conservatism and religious bigotry gone in a snap? Dubious, and later I found out that I had sufficient reason to be. He said the Church now tolerates same sex relationships, as long as the couples do not engage in intercourse.

The lack of logic was as glaring as the meaning was obvious in the word itself. Homosexuality has the greek word “homos,” meaning “same.” Thus, homosexuality connotes sexual attraction or romantic involvement among members of the same sex.

It was actually very easy to understand, in terms of gist and if you set aside the wide spectrum of the LGBT for the sake of explanation. Romantic involvement is not the teenage chick flicks or the cartoon couples you watch in Disney. What did you expect, just tweetums, smacks, pleasant, general patronage scenes and nothing else?

To say that homosexuality is acceptable as long as there is no intercourse only proves how the Church treats the LGBT as an anomalous condition. Like a cold that will go away after sometime. A disease that will eventually be cured as long as you religiously take medication. It treats homosexuals as a spectacle. As a condition for acceptance, the Church had to dehumanize the LGBT into sexless individuals. In the end, the only tolerable form of romantic involvement is still heterosexual.

This case was just on top of the homophobia (I am uncomfortable with using the term) that spilled all over the past week. A European Languages major walked into the Collegian office one afternoon to pitch in a story of gender discrimination. She’s a transgender and was careful in correcting her classmates whenever they address her using male pronouns.

Her professor suddenly asked her to sit down for a talk. Thinking it was just an academic matter, she was caught off-guard with the professor’s sentiments on her gender. “I am a Christian, and this is against my religious beliefs,” the professor reportedly said to her, as if she totally forgot that she was teaching in a non-sectarian university that espouses academic freedom and claims to be a bastion of democratic rights. Insisting to misgender a student for her own religious freedom. 

Read the rest of the article here.