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Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Te: The plight of the shrimp
By Jeanne Tan Te
Flavors
LATELY, I came upon a queer site on the net with a domain name GodHatesShrimp.
It further explains "Shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, mussels, all these are an abomination before the Lord, just as gays are an abomination. Why stop at protesting gay marriage? ..."
Their basis, among others, is found in a passage from the Old Testament Leviticus 11:9, which goes: "These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat."
Intrigued, (Actually, upset is more apt.) I searched further in other religious sites relating to the said topic. Well, I found out that even authorities on the Scripture do not necessarily support the use of such a passage in Web propaganda because as we all know; Jesus Christ in the New Testament is very persistent in teaching us about love and forgiveness. "Love thy neighbor..." and all that, right? And I guess it refers to all of God's creations in all forms. Hmm...what am I getting at? Well, I just thought that if something like the "Word of God" can be subjected to various misreading, how much more a person, a complex human being that he or she is, can become an easy target to misinterpretations and prejudices. More so, with gays, lesbians, special or gifted persons, and "geeks".
* * * * *
When Rustom Padilla admitted that he is gay, it was more of a confirmation rather than a revelation as there has already been so much speculation pointing to his real sexuality. Finally getting it "out of the closet" was simply expanding the breathing space of people around him. That probably explains why acceptance of Rustom's family and friends was easy. Even being gay, I think, is no longer a real issue now that he is legally single.
Philippine society is quite relaxed when it comes to homosexuality. How else can Boy Abunda, Ricky Lo, and all those movie-TV directors and local sitcom characters have such flourishing careers? Even the President has a gay version in the person of Ate Glow!
We get easily entertained by these truly talented members of the third sex. But what really goes beyond acceptance? I would like to believe, HUMANITY. The quality of a person and one's ability to make other people's lives more meaningful and harmonious. Adapting a certain lifestyle, religion, or cause among other things, entails a certain degree of responsibility, not an excuse. So it is with sexuality. Being weak is not an excuse for being a woman. Being polygamous should not be tolerable for the mere reason of being a man. And being offensive and unreasonably eccentric? It is definitely not an excuse for being gay. Whatever form one takes, the way we affect others is how we are going to be measured ultimately. And what really gives substance to our humanity is how we feel good when we are able to put a smile on another person's face and conceive "tomorrow" as something to be happy about, something to hope for...
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My son's school recently marked its Second Foundation Anniversary. We celebrated it with a lunch cookout. One of the best dishes served was steamed prawns. They served it halved: head, and then the other half, meat or body. It didn't take a while before all the meat portions were all consumed. I came in late, so I was only able to get hold of the heads. Too bad? Nah. Actually, the most delectable part of the prawn is the head while the meat do not taste as savory as the smaller shrimps. So, I was really wondering why only a few chose to chow on the heads. I say, the poor shrimps got prejudiced. Now, that's too bad.
(March 15, 2006 issue)
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