Tuesday, April 29, 2008 Oledan: Shameful By Radzini Oledan Slice of life
HOMOPHOBIA. The term used to describe aversion to or discrimination against homosexuals.
It is the root of the unprofessional behavior of medical practitioners at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center against a patient whose operation was circulated in the internet and posted at the YouTube.
The video that runs for two minutes and 28 seconds shows an operating team of more than 10 people laughing, with someone shouting instructions while the operation was going on.
Loud cheering and shouting can be heard as the canister that someone describes as a "baby" is slowly pulled out of the patient's anus. One of the staff even opens the perfume and sprays it around.
The patient was unconscious throughout the operation.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III cited breaches in protocol in the incident.
The use of cellular phones in the operating room, the use of a video camera without the patient's consent and not for educational purposes, and the 'shameful' behavior of the doctors and nurses involved in the surgery.
The Church has turned the issue as a springboard for its moralist position against gays. It cited sexual disorder and further went into blaming the victim.
The issue is on medical ethics and human rights, not only because the patient was a homosexual but also because he is without economic means.
It is the' holier than thou' attitude. It is the blatant disrespect for those who have a different sexual orientation.
Our society has built barriers, even though it speaks of mutual respect and peace. It labels people, even though it calls for unity. It discriminates.
This is a form of anti-gay repression against those who belong to the lowest strata of our community who may not be able to count on the usual remedies available to other victims of abuse.
There is resistance in even acknowledging that lesbian and gay people are "equal in dignity and rights."
Moralists consider homosexuality as a sin, or an illness, an ideological deviation or a betrayal of one's culture.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) opens with the simple but powerful statement that “all members of the human family” have equal and inalienable rights, an affirmation that should be seen as one of the most significant legacies of the 20th century.
Yet as the century draws to a close, a sizeable minority of the world's population continues to be denied full membership of that “human family.”
We talk about equal dignity and yet gay people are dehumanized when we marginalized them as the "other." After all, if they are less than human, why should they enjoy full human rights?
When those in power brand members of certain groups as "less than human" solely because their identity separates "them” from "us," they pave the way for gross human rights abuses against such groups. Shameful.
