The Rainbow Blog Philippines

What is in a romantic relationship but a plain and simple intertwining of two hearts? It is a UNION of two people who LOVE each other and who AGREE to COMMIT to each other. It is MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING and, therefore, takes TWO to make it live. With the "union" comes commitment, with commitment comes responsibility, and with responsibility comes EXCLUSIVITY. For what is love without effort? Responsibility means, when you enter a relationship, new "duties" emerge, big or small, in pursuit of the goal to make each other feel loved and treasured. There is now the responsibility for BOTH to assure his Love that HE BELONGS. "Belonging" implies security, and security implies the assurance that it's just the two of you and no other person stands in your way to each other. There are adjustments, and there is sacrificing a bit of freedom that one had when he was still alone, simply because, it's the two of you now. Things need not be too complicated. The rel...

A popular line of ASSHOLES who initiate a breakup or a popular answer you get when you confront some SWINE who suddenly goes silent and gets lost without even expressing intentions of closure. "It's not you, it's me." Question: Why say that? Do you think it helps? Why not say on my face that you want to get rid of me? You play culprit but you effect the same thing => HURT. Obviously, the purpose that line is to somehow "ease" the pain of the poor guy who still wants you; the guy who didn't understand why you left and who couldn't figure out what he did that made you scram. It is always said on the excuse that one has a "deeper problem" than what seems to be on the surface, something one has to resolve himself, or something he has to take care of which is FIRST in his line of priorities. It may be indecision or any other self-crisis. That is the facade the line usually creates. Does it make a difference? Why not be man enough? Speak your ...

When I was having coffee and smoke in our balcony to start my morning today, I overheard one nasty exchange of minds from that group of cute young boys who hang out at the house next to where I live, which went as follows: Boy 1: Pare yang babaeng nagtatrabaho sa America priority yan. Boy 2: Pero mas maganda pa rin pare ung based sa America o Americana talaga. Boy 3: Bahala na kung ano yan Pare basta MAKAPAL ANG WALLET. Boy 4: Oo nga, BE PRACTICAL, Pare. The conversation left me clueless as to what to feel at the point of hearing it, but hell sure it raised a lot of questions from me. Well, yes, the looks of the members of this barkada is not a joke. They're one bunch of cute college boys. However, I don't see any reason for looks to be made a basis for assigning a corresponding value to one's self in looking for a mate. Such conversation only made me realize that, in these hard times, the word "practicality" is already overrated, and consequently, finding a ...

The secret to being happy is ____________. To enjoy life to the fullest by being yourself (in every circumstance) no matter what anyone else says. There’s no need to stress over what other people say, because if one person doesn’t like you, there are still plenty of other people who will… Live your dreams. Know what you really want deep inside and what you really think that is good for you. Some people are not that open-minded to understand the happiness of us, PLU's but having faith and trust on oneself and valuing the uniqueness of others experiences, maybe perhaps the key to bliss. No one is guaranteed happiness, life just gives us space and time, it’s up to us to fill it with joy and meaning… in the long run, pessimists may be proven right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip. Please let me know what you think and tell me what makes you grin inside. crossposted from: Stainedheart's Blog

Twas quite an interesting question when I was asked by my STRAIGHT friends regarding about GAY LOVE. Is love a decision someone has to make? Should I decide first before loving a person? Isn’t it that love is not something that you decide upon but is something that comes naturally? Well in my experience, yes…or it could be. though the feeling is there, you still have to decide if you’re going through with the whole process of loving that person. making your love be for that person. I’m 28 and fell in love with my Hubby 7 years younger than me, I had to make a decision... a BIG decision if I will act upon my love or will I set this one free? I guess if only the love is felt by both, like the person you like loves you too then the only decision to make is will you have the courage to take the chance with it. Once again, my answer would be yes.... OR just take the risk if you really have the "butterfly-in-the-gut" feeling towards that guy. Its better to love and fall out of ...

If you could take a pill that would turn you straight, would you take it?- Davey Wavey I won’t lie…I’ve considered being straight and just forgetting the gay thing. But then I just remember that vagina’s are really gross and my gayness flares anew! hahaha. Seriously, I would. It took me a very long time to come up with an answer for this. I thought about all the good in my life from being gay and thought about all the bad in my life. The bad outweighed the good. But now that I think about it, if I weren’t gay, I don’t think my Hubby and I would love each other the way we do. If we were straight, I think our relationship would be extremely different. hmmm maybe like beer buddies and stuff. So…I guess I change my mind. Losing the relationship I have with my Hubby is not worth turning straight. I love him too much and I don’t want to lose that feeling. crossposted from: Stainedheart's Blog

I can't believe that people just don't seem to get it. Being against gay marriage is as bad as being a racist. I'm gay, I'm asian and believe me persecution is the same no matter what it's target - black, white, gay, lesbian, etc. Prop 8 = HATE and that makes me hurt for all of us. We need to stop hovering in people's bedrooms and get down to the business of fixing this world-wide problem. The video made me cry. Its one of the most powerful videos I have ever watched in my entire life. I can’t believe how selfish people can be, to only want what is in their agenda. think everyone is entitled to happiness, regardless of what sex, race and culture. The video was beautiful and made me unhappy to see how many faces and people from so many walks of life will be wounded by this obvious act of bigotry. Give everyone EQUAL RIGHTS and get your heads out of the sand people. Gay is not a choice, just like I didn't choose to be asian! Two people who love each other and ...

Ay, gusto ko lang mag follow-up regarding about the MUSAP because I've read another article today and it really offended me talaga! On my last post , wala akong kinakampihan between Ms Carolina nor Perez, but this time gusto ko lang mag express kung ano din ang opinion ko. Anyway, this is also a reply to Mac Calister and Shanes comment.. Mac, hindi mo to ma-take ..lol “I think it’s great that Americans are able to choose one or the other,” Prejean responded. “But in my country, and in my family, I think that I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised.” Eh, ano ngayon if you were raised that way? To hell I care! People were raised to hate Blacks and Jews, Asians too. Does that make it right? But that’s not really what she meant, of course: “I don’t take back what I said,” she told Lauer of AccessHollywood, adding that she “had spoken from my heart, from my beliefs and for my God.” “It’s not about be...

Movie Review on American independent gay film "Rock Haven"(available at the Malaysian blog Filem Gay ). This post was written by RBP team member line of flight from Sampaloc Toc . First of all, I want to give a shout out to the Malaysian site, Filem Gay , for helping to catablog international gay cinema. I have watched many many gay films in my life and with the recent advances in editing technology and its greater accessibility to the middle class, I have to say that I have been unable to be aware of every gay film that has come out in the last ten years (there is just too many). I was roaming through Filem Gay's blog and stumbled onto Rock Haven . Filem Gay summarized: The coastal California community of Rock Haven is the perfect place for cute eighteen-year-old Brady and his loving mother to begin a fresh start. Their mission: to spread the word of the Lord. But while roaming the beach one day, Brady meets Clifford, a young man who is the complete opposite of him: ou...

Here are the signs of a BOYFRIEND worth keeping. Enjoy! :) Does not want to show you his celphone; accepts calls and answers text messages in front of you but considers it a CRIME on your part to simply ask who he is talking with Hates questions, avoids simple confrontations [great escapist!] Tells leading information but hates it when you dig deeper [e.g., i waited for sombody. you ask, sino? sagot: TAO.] Does not want to introduce you to his friends, when you have introduced him even to your family [in short, ikinakahiya ka!] Evades healthy discussions of problems, buries them to eternity, and kisses and makes up [nothing is resolved] Does not listen when you fight; bombards you with insults even in your efforts to fix a problem, thus adding great insult to simple injury Does not want to get employed even if qualified and experienced; instead, wants to put up business and pressures you to produce capital for a business in his name Welcomes his friends to your home and even to your be...

Book Review on American English Professor Michael Warner's book "The Trouble with Normal". This post was written by RBP team member line of flight from Sampaloc Toc . Michael Warner is a professor of English at Rutgers University. He is one of the founding thinkers in "queer theory" starting with his edited book Fear of a Queer Planet . When first published, The Trouble with Normal was seen as a response to Andrew Sullivan's book Virtually Normal and the move in sexual minority and dissident communities towards a stable LGBT identity community and same-sex marriage as the ultimate goal of such a community. Until the 1990s, the U.S. did not have a clear and stable notion of an LGBT community -- there were transgender communities, gay communities, lesbian communities and some overlap. This is still true about a global LGBT community. This unifying of different groups of people into an LGBT community produced a unified political agenda. For Warner, this polit...

Book Review on American Anthropology Professor Tanya Erzen's 2006 book "Straight to Jesus". This post was written by RBP team member line of flight from Sampaloc Toc . Tanya Erzen is an American anthropologist and professor and identified herself as a "straight woman." She interviews and observes an ex-gay community south of San Francisco, California over the course of a year and does a bit of historical research of ex-gay faith communities, the media and political movements. In the late 1990s, the religious right in the U.S. began heavily promoting ex-gays as a political maneuver to deny LGBT claims for anti-discrimination laws or equal protection under the law. The LGBT community responded with an attack on ex-gays -- the 1999 movie But I'm a Cheerleader is a classic example. Yet, Enzer doesn't focus on either of these two opposing movements, the LGBT political movement or the religious right's political movement. Instead, she focuses on the suff...

This is a very interesting social experiment about gay couples being affectionate in public. CHeck out the video: On a personal note, my partner and I have overcome the insecurity of being affectionate in public. And thus far, we haven't encountered any harsh comments... Probably because Filipinos are just more tolerant? I don't know. Probably because people would rather not say their thoughts out loud. Whatever the case maybe, we're thankful that we're lucky enough to NOT experience public persecution in the way shown in this video. How about you, dear reader? What are your thoughts on the experiment? Are you and your partner open about your relationship? Do you shy away from PDA? If not, how does the public react to you?

I was having a very interesting conversation with a good friend of mine recently, and he inspired me to write about this topic. During our discussion, the subject of the effects of jealousy and insecurity on a relationship came up. At first we were just discussing relationships in general, but then he asked me if I thought that these issues were a bigger problem in gay relationships than they were in straight ones. Since these two issues are usually the cause of major relationship traumas, I figured this would be the perfect place to examine this. So here are my thoughts. When he first asked the question, I was sort of at a loss. I didn't really know if I could answer honestly. But I have been thinking about it for the last couple of days, and I have to say that I am still no closer to reaching a definite answer. I have to admit that to my mind, it does often seem as if jealousy and insecurity are more of a problem in gay relationships. In my view, we do seem to be a little more po...