Rational Insanity
'Out' of trouble?
All right now, before I have rabid supporters of Rustom taking turns at my neck, let me first make it clear that personally, I believe that what he did required a lot of courage and I admire him for that. Admitting that he is gay on national television definitely requires immense courage and even for just that, he deserves a pat on the back. For crying out loud, admitting that one is gay already requires a lot of courage, how much more if one does it on national television? On the outset, let's not get into it too much because not all people who come out, come out clean.
It turns out that Rustom's mother and his brothers already know about his homosexuality and have admitted that they accept him as he is. If we consider this, we are left asking: what then did Rustom want to achieve by admitting it on national television? You see, when a person is gay, it does not really matter what other people think as long as one's family is behind him/her. Family acceptance is actually all that matters because whether we like it or not, we cannot force society to accept what it has openly rejected for generations already. This is the reason why I have been toying with the presumption that perhaps Rustom had ulterior motives by admitting that he was gay on live national television. What else could a gay son ask for if his family supports him already? Fame? A new boost for his dead and rotting career? The sympathy of the public so that he is not evicted from the Big Brother house? Personally, I don't know, but let's look at this piece by piece.
Homosexuality is not something to use to achieve fame. It just so happened that most gays are very talented and so they become famous for what they can do and not what or who they are. Yes, sometimes you see gays making a novelty out of themselves by performing as impersonators or transvestites in all their gay glory, but it's not the gayness that the audience sees here but the genuine talent in comedy. (By the way, only intelligent people have a good sense of humor, so if you want someone with a good sense of humor as a partner start with an IQ test first.) A gay writer, for instance, is not recognized because he is gay, but because he writes well and has used this talent to compensate for a shortfall in sexuality. Now, if Rustom thinks he can achieve a new found fame by openly admitting that he is gay, then he is heading for disaster. While it is true that he has had his fifteen minutes of fame right when he admitted he was gay, the attention that the public gave him during those moments was not mostly because of sympathy, but because of the rumor-mongering nature of Filipinos. Of course, something sensational happened in the PBB house, and it's televised, so who is the Pinoy to deny himself a few minutes of entertainment? True, his courage might be something that can give him the fame he wants, but see, courage, is not a skill, and one cannot use it to achieve something that is selfishly motivated. Courage is a value and a virtue, and all you get from being courageous is praise and salutation for what you have done, and for most people, this is enough, I don't know if it is for Rustom.
One cannot boost an already dead career by admitting that he/she is gay. First, a dead career is dead, and the only way to resurrect it is by choosing something else. Second, what Rustom did achieve nothing new, he just confirmed what the entire country thought of him for so long already, and what does that do to one's career? Well, for starters, it gets remarks like, "Te, siling ko gid!" and "Te, amo gid na nga nag-break sila ni Carmina eh!"; then after that realization, the Filipino audience will turn away and leave you to hurdle your own obstacles and face your own consequences. Unless of course if by admitting that you are gay on national television you jumpstart an "instant yaman" show like Wowowee, then perhaps, the Filipino audience would give you the career boost you want, but not because of your admission, rather, because of what you can contribute to the materialization of dreams that are an inevitable result of the pathetic "biglang yaman" culture of the Pinoy that caused numerous deaths during the Ultra stampede.
Next; does Rustom's admission get him the sympathy of Filipino viewers? Honestly, I don't know, but he sure didn't get mine, to begin with. What he did, as I was saying, merely confirmed what most people already know. Do you get any sympathy when you tell somebody that you have a pimple on your ass? I don't think so. Let's not treat homosexuality like it is a disease, and I think even Rustom would be with me when I say that gays do not need society's sympathy. What gays need is acceptance and the zealous support of the family. I believe Rustom already has those which all the more, takes away any justification for his having to do it in public and on national television unless he had some other intention.
All these boils down to just a few points; coming out is not a thing for the public, it is purely personal; it is an internal journey that an individual should initiate on his own. Should anyone let the public into this very personal conquest, it has to be with good enough reason, and in my twenty-eight years as I writer I have not yet come across anything that would justify the public's participation in a deeply personal experience, even Ellen Degeneres did not get anything out of her public revelation. Coming out does not seek anonymous attention, instead, a person who comes out as gay or homosexual seeks only two things, the acceptance of family and the understanding of the closest friends with these two things in the bag, there is nothing more one can ask for, that is, unless there are other ulterior motives aside from just the actual coming out. Coming out is an intimate experience, and like the miracle of birth, coming out has its own magic. Finally, let me just remind Rustom and all other people out there that coming out is not coming out clean coming out is the beginning of a journey into oneself, and that alone is a mouthful (pun intended).
To wrap this all up, let me just say that although Rustom was most likely sincere in what he did, doing it on national television and on a reality show that is trying to imitate fiction and doing it very badly (Virgil, 2006) diminutized his shining moment and turned it into a cheap charade worthy of doubt as to whether it was done to achieve something other than an intimate self discovery or not. Now, shoot me.
Be rational; be insane every once in a while!!! TTFN!
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