I was chatting with a friend last night. I mentioned that I am now staying away from meat and eating tofu to compensate for the lack of protein that I can only get from meat products. I was surprised when she bluntly said ” You are so gay”. Say what?

She explained that eating tofu was an inside joke among lesbians. I still didn’t get it so she explained a bit more, saying that lesbians are mostly feminists and vegans… Ahhh, associations. I don’t like it and still, I didn’t get the humor that should normally come after the joke. In my want to shine more light on the subject, I came across many lesbian issues, culture, history and political perspectives.

The primitive way of viewing homosexuality is through a psychological eye. Being a lesbian is widely seen as having sexual relations with another woman. With this concept, people came up with 3 identifying components of a lesbian:

  • Sexual behavior
  • Sexual Desire
  • Sexual Identity

Hence, homosexuality is seen as something that should be cured, if not all together abolished. Because of this primitive view on homosexuality, homosexuals are pushed to the dark alleys and back rooms of our society.

Today, I’d like to think that we’ve veered away from this concept. Homosexuality is now as much cultural and political as it is psychological. The many lesbian and gay movements prove that homosexuality is far more than just a deviation from the normal psychological development of an individual. It shouldn’t be seen as something to be cured in fear of spreading it to other people.

Lesbians, specifically, have worked towards leveling the playing field between men and women, which gave birth to the political and societal concept of feminism. This movement is geared towards establishing the rights and protection of women. I can go on and write about events that pushed women to fight for their rights, but of course, all of us know about gender inequality.

Lesbians and Feminism became closely linked because one always comes to the other’s defense. This is why we can not and should not solely treat lesbianism as a psychological concept. In fact, it is more political and cultural than psychological.

A lesbian- feminist once said that sexuality is not necessary for someone to be a lesbian. Most of the time, love and sex are completely unrelated with each other. A lesbian writer also claimed that men constructed women’s sexuality.  Their view on lesbian orientation is only focused on a woman having sex with another woman.

Lesbians and feminism are greater than just those sexual orientations. Lesbians and feminists work with and for women. In this sense, women became protectors of women.

Feminism has these themes:

  1. Women’s love for one another
  2. Separatist concept
  3. Lesbianism is about empowering women’s choice and resistance
  4. Rejection of hierarchy
  5. Critique of male- supremacy

When you look at feminism with these things in mind, you’d understand that feminism’s main goal is to unite women and empower them, to free them from the reigns that hinder them from fulfilling the kind of persons that they should be.

This is how homosexuality is political. Homosexuals have always been for equal rights and protection. They do not only want to be accepted, they want to be treated as equal citizens of the society. Because of the conservative and rigid structures we have, they have to fight for what should have been theirs all along.

I cannot reiterate more than I already did that homosexuality is more than just a state of mind or sexual orientation. It is a state of being; a state of self that should not be treated as abnormal or as a societal problem.

With the primitive concept, I don’t think I’d pass for a lesbian, but I advocate for the same things as they are. So maybe I am Lez too.

post note:

The Philippine’s Supreme court recently issued a TRO  stopping COMELEC from delisting Ang Ladlad for the May 2010 elections.  For the LGBT in the Philippines, this is an opportunity for them to continue their fight for equality and representation.[ read full story here]

Let us give this group the chance for representation. It is their right as it is ours.

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