The Philippine Online Chronicles

It’s been several days since we’ve welcomed the Chinese New Year and although most of us are not Chinese, we still went and celebrated it anyway. We greeted each other with the Chinese phrase, “Kung Hei Fat Choi” or Gong Xi Fat Cai or its countless other phonetic spellings, not really knowing which was right.  We would crowd around those stand alone billboards in malls that tell us in a paragraph how we should expect our year to be, based to our birth sign.

It has always amazed me how those astrologers, Chinese or otherwise could predict what our life would be like with just the date of our birth to work on. Imagine the thousands, maybe millions who were born on the same day having the same fortune for the year. The odds of such occurrence are slim and yet, we still jostle for space to read those posters.

For those who are not contented with the free one-paragraph version of their yearly Chinese horoscope, they shell out as much as 500 pesos to purchase the book a famous Feng Shui expert comes out with every year for each of the different Chinese zodiac sign. The book predicts what the year would be like for the female and the male of each sign, discussing how they would fare in terms of love, family, education, career, and business each month of the year.

This makes me wonder if that Feng Shui expert took into consideration that LGBTs might also want to read her book. When the author differentiates between the sexes, does she talk about sex at birth or the person’s gender identity? Would the fortunes of, say, a female transgender be that of the female of that certain zodiac or of the male’s? Does sex really matter when it comes to luck?  Would the male and female sheep, for instance, fare differently just because they are of different sex? Equal opportunity among the sexes seems to be absent when it comes to zodiac signs. What more for an LGBT person?

Though I am not an expert for other sexes, I would say that for LGBT advocates, sexual orientation and/or gender identity matters. We can not be compartmentalized in the conventional male/female classification. So how could these books be of use to us?  Why not make predictions for LGBTs as well?

Such book would be useful. It would tell us, for example, to forego applying in a certain company in June because we would only be discriminated against or would suggest some charm to ward off those bigots and prejudiced people that we will meet in September. But no, no such book or charms exist. There are charms against theft, home invasions, and such but no charm against discrimination and prejudice.

So we have to make do with resolutions and making noises to ward off these evil spirits. For us to have a better year, we only have ourselves to look to. If we wanted to improve something or some aspect of our lives, we have to do it ourselves.  Resolutions. That’s what we can depend on, not charms, nor luck.

But there are limits to these resolutions as well. Although our being LGBT is not a sin, the resolution to have more intimate moments would result to us going to hell (according to the book Homosexuality and the Catholic Church), and if we wished to be married, the Pope himself said that we would be a threat to humanity.  So in essence, we could wish and resolve to have more money, have a perfect body, be successful in our chosen field, but we can never wish for equality in terms of marriage and access to basic opportunities.

But 2012 twelve is different. This year is special. Another ancient civilization has predicted that the world would end this year.  With our usual penchant for taking part in other people’s holidays, and having seen the Hollywood movie 2012, we too are scared of this Mayan prediction, not really caring that the Mayans, as a civilization, has been obliterated from the face of the earth several hundred years ago, which in effect, makes the prediction several hundred years off target since their world has ended a long time ago.

So the odds for LGBTs just keep adding up. We cannot depend on Feng Shui, the  Roman Catholic Church sets a limit for the things we could wish and work for, and this year could be the last year of the world. With this in mind, we have to make a decision, live this year with more zest, always bearing in mind that this could be the last year of the world or live like it’s any other year.  We could forego those usual resolutions or be steadfast in keeping them, knowing that there would be no next year.

As I see it, there is only one resolution that would save us from eternal damnation. It is not to be a better person, a more understanding person, a generous person, or even a loving person but rather it is the resolution to be celibate. If we were to believe that the church is the mouthpiece of God and everything that it says is writ, then only when we are truly celibate can we be saved from the fires of hell.

Uhm… Right. That is, if you believe that the church has the exclusive rights to what God says and that the Mayans were right on in their prediction.  For me, I don’t mind if the world ends this year since I have been anxious in finding out if “acting on my sexual urges”, as the church would say it, has assured me a place in hell.

All I’m sure is if the world ended, I would face it knowing that I have been true to myself and I have not held myself back from expressing my love for life and my partner. Sated and with my partner by my side, I won’t face the apocalypse alone. If by any chance we end up in hell, then at least we would be together.

That’s better than facing the end of days all by yourself, sexually frustrated, full of regret and with only your rosary to keep you company.