During my time in the Philippines I immediately noticed a very different culture of homosexuality than in the states. Especially being raised in the south, I was impressed by how the topic never seemed to be taboo even though the Philippines is heavily Catholic. Their seemed to be little repression. After spending a bit more time researching and talking to countless people starting with the family with a young boy who preferred to live as a girl, to the American preist who moved to the Philippines to start a gay congregation, to the editor and chief of 'Out' a Filipino gay magazine, I came to realize that the issue was much more complicated than I originally thought. Their is actually much segregation even among gay men in the Philippines. The main devision is between Bakla, which are the often flamboyant boys who live as girls usually by dress and attitude as the cost of surgery is usually prohibitive, and MSM (men who have sex with men) who are men who live as men and are attracted to other men. These two groups often don't get along. Although my time on this project was not extensive, the men and bakla that I spent time with were amazingly open with me and the experience was profound and I was able to learn a lot very quickly about the dynamics and struggles of being gay in the Philippines.
