For those who may not know it, I am the country’s first “honorary gay.” I was so declared in 2012 by the Ladlad-Party List, led by gay activist Danton Remoto, during the group’s fund-raising event at the Rembrandt Hotel, which I sponsored. And the title was for my efforts in promoting gay and lesbian rights under the law. For the record, I wrote an article for Rappler calling for an amendment to the Family Code in order to give equal protection to heterosexual and homosexual relationships. Here is the link: https://www.rappler.com/voices/thought-leaders/61869-family-code-same-sex-unions/

No one should therefore doubt my commitment to gay rights. My stand is this: If a biological man or woman of legal age should choose another of the same sex for their romantic partner, that is their business and no one else’s; and they should not be discriminated against for that, as long as it is between consenting adults. As I said once, and I shall say again, gay rights are human rights.

There is, however, a radical philosophy to which I cannot subscribe. It is the “trans agenda.” In sum, a trans is a biological male who identifies as a woman, and vice versa. I actually have no problem with that either. If you want to think you are a woman, then I don’t give a flying eff. What I will draw the line at, though, is a trans woman who is biologically a man, but wants all the rights of a woman. Now, there are serious issues when it comes to that.

I do not know if any of you remember l’affaire Gretchen in 2019, where a trans woman named Gretchen Diez was arrested for using the women’s room in a Cubao shopping mall. Livid at what she thought was a violation of her gender self-identity, Diez went live on Facebook to decry a female janitor who insisted that she use the men’s room. Charges were later dropped.

The local trans community lost no time in using the incident to try to advance the trans agenda. True to the OA (over-acting) culture in the Philippines, it even spurred an investigation in the House of Representatives. Accusations of discrimination were bandied about, and Diez, enjoying fully her fifteen minutes of fame, even hinted that she would seek public office.

What the trans women of the Philippines had not counted on was the huge resulting backlash.

Many women began voicing their concerns about the discomfort they felt whenever a trans woman used the ladies’ room in a public place. Issues were also raised about the possibility of heterosexual men putting on women’s wear, lipstick, and makeup to enter ladies’ rooms to satisfy their voyeuristic curiosities. Celebrities weighed in, many against Diez, with an iconic gay hairstylist stating the stand of the concerned women quite succinctly in the vernacular: “Kung ikaw ay may puday (vagina), sa ladies’ room ka; kung ikaw ay may nota (penis), sa men’s room ka.”

Gretchen Diez, although now largely forgotten, unwittingly set back the cause of gay rights a decade or so by her misguided insistence on using the women’s restroom and scandalizing those who would not let her. Due to the fallout of what she did, the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression and Sex Characteristics Equality or SOGIE Bill, which was finally gaining traction after 23 years in Congress, was indefinitely shelved. Her diatribes against the janitor and security personnel who were, after all, just doing their jobs, solidified the factual contention of many that while a trans woman may be within her rights to claim to be a woman, it does not make him/her a woman entitled to rights reserved to biological women.

A woman, after all, is an adult female with two X chromosomes and the capacity to become pregnant. There are no ifs, ands, or buts in that definition. You are born with a definite gender.  Love it or hate it, that is your gender.