The Rainbow Blog Philippines

by the lesfriendly girl I was a lesbian first, a blogger next. But that’s because I’ve always been a lesbian. Since I was born, even. I was a blogger when the social networking Multiply got famous. I first started posting personal blogs, then eventually what people would call “spam” – advertisements for events, sales and what-have-you for my lesbians organizations: Lunduyan ng Sining and GALANG (Gay and Lesbian Activist Network for Gender Equality). And then came the idea of blogging specifically for a lesbian target audience and setting up a separate site for it. I can say that Rainbow Bloggers inspired me – I saw them at the 2008 TFP Pride March stage and I had the most selfish motive to be up there with them (the selfishness has gone now that I’m a Rainbow Blogger *cough*). So I set up lesfriendly.com - my blog that talks about anything lesbian that pops into my mind. Anyway, fast forward to now, being a lesbian blogger has its perks. Due to the rarity of public Philippine lesbi...

Last Friday the 13th, of all days, I was scheduled for my annual physical examination (PE). Let me say at the outset that unlike other transwomen I know, I don’t dread routine medical check-ups. Even if I’ve met my share of medical professionals who didn’t know any better, still I am very comfortable in the presence of health care workers. This is probably because I come from a family of nurses who impressed on me growing up the utmost importance of one’s well-being and the merits of getting regular medical exams. So I always look forward to my annual PE and hate it when I miss it. What I don’t like about it is the general confusion that ensues every time. At the University of the Philippines Health Service (UPHS) (formerly the UP Infirmary), where I went last Friday, you have to ask for your records before a consult and apparently, the UPHS has devised a new color scheme for patients along gender lines: yellow for female and green for male or maybe it’s the other way around, I’m not s...