Friday, April 25, 2008
Seares: Must we unmask Jan-Jan?
By Pachico A. Seares
News Sense
SOME people are saying that Jan-Jan, the homosexual from whose anus a can of body spray was extracted, must be identified.
Unfair, they say, that Vicente Sotto doctors and nurses who are condemned for making the surgery a circus are named and Jan-Jan is not.
Why must he continue to use an alias and hide under a blanket and dark glasses?
He's the victim, the abused, target of ridicule while he lay on the operating table, watched by a raucous group that photographed his embarrassing ordeal.
Technically, Jan-Jan was raped by his male lover. Under the law, inserting an object into his anus or any other hole in his body is rape. That he paid the lover didn't mean consent, as the perverse twist in the love-making was without his knowledge--he was too drunk to notice.
News media haven't disclosed his real name, out of respect for a victim of abuse, or abuses (one in the bedroom and the other in the surgery room).
Here, media have kept his identity despite Jan-Jan's coming out and talking publicly about his plight. If he were a she and the rape was the ordinary variety, the victim would be unmasked by now.
"Charade"
There's a problem, to be sure.
When Jan-Jan goes to court, his name will appear in public records and he'll take the stand at trial. Will the judge and media continue the "charade" of shielding him from public eyes?
As to damages, you may ask, what public humiliation did he suffer when the public doesn't know him? OK, maybe inner grief from intrusion into privacy and invasion of personal dignity, not from publicity.
A sure thing though: Jan-Jan goes through his 15 minutes of fame incognito. Colossally odd.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (April 25, 2008 issue)
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