Notes from Jaime
I'm a confirmed homophobe, and I'd be the first to box my brother senseless if he hints he's gay. I once did a mean sidekick to a classmate who touched my hand accidentally. I thought it was deliberate, and when I sensed it was really an accident, I calmed down and helped put ice on his black and blue hipbone. Ouch!
So there I was, stuck in the bowels of a traffic clogged Makati street, consoling myself that at least I was listening to some entertaining fare on the radio, good ole Mo Twister manages to keep me engaged with all the threads of his conversation, no matter how inane.
When the music sucks, I transfer it to chico and delamar's station, and I sometimes get amused with their seamless chemistry. Hearing their voices remind me of a sunny day at the beach with me holding a cone of wild strawberry ice cream topped with chocolate/caramel sauce. Delicious!
But sunny seamless days are not my cup of tea. I like some windy,rainy,foggy and dark days sometimes. The Twister's show keeps me amused, since it viscerally reminds me of our human psyche - sometimes dark, oftentimes twisted, but always at the end, surreal and funny. Like the show.
Anyway, tiring of chico and delamar's perfect weather voices, I returned to Magic 899 only to hear Mojo calling his father in Canada, with the Twister and Grace Lee prodding him on to articulate for the first time that he- Mojo Jojo is gay. Mojo apparently never said it in words, but just hinted at his condition all these years.
"Dad. . .?" Mojo starts hesitantly.
"Oh hi son," or words to that effect. His Dad's greeting was so warm and full of love.
"Di ba Lent na, and I've just been to Mass.." a gaggle of giggles from the funny trio here, who were snickering at the absurdity of Mojo thinking of a reason to blurt out a serious confessional.
"Dad, I'm gay."
I don't know what the Dad said, but he never once got angry. All I heard was that he wasn't disappointed at all. His voice was full love and understanding.
Frankly, I was just shocked at the conversation, and my mind was so befuddled I don't know how I worked that day,operating on semi-automatic mode to get through the day. I could not process at how the Dad showed so much love, at what is quite an unacceptable situation to me, if the same thing happened to me.
When the day ended, I thought I could finally relax. Unfortunately, my girlfriend had a lot of troubles in the office too and wanted to decompress at the end of the day.
Once I brought her home,I was just struck speechless when she plopped a DVD of "Harvey Milk" and Sean Penn came out of the screen as an unbelievably believable fag.
Coincidence?
I could not stop watching the movie because Sean Penn as Harvey Milk is just unbelievable.No wonder Penn won the Oscar as Best Actor last month! I could not see a shred of Sean Penn the person in any frame in that film. Macho, hard-drinking, alpha male Penn had disappeared.
Columnist Michael Sragow of the Baltimore Sun hit the nail on the head:
"As Milk, who rose to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors and became potential mayoral material, Penn breathes the character in thoroughly and breathes him out unself-consciously and passionately. His body language and facial expressions reflect an astonishing alteration in spirit, whether he's raising a fist in triumph at a parade or toppling into romance head-first at a subway stop with the pickup who turns into his most profound lover, Scott Smith ( James Franco).
"What's just as important as his gestures and movements are the sparkle in his eye, the laugh lines in his face and, when you can hear him above the fray or in the quiet of a lonely corridor or a private home, the resilience and humor in his voice. (In Penn's and Franco's characterizations, Milk and the affectionate, devoted Smith harmonize beautifully until politics tears them apart.) Penn the off-screen personality becomes deliberate and somber when he talks about politics on The Charlie Rose Show. As Milk, he creates a character whose passion is extroverted and infectious: Even his guile conveys a sense of play."
Seeing Milk's struggles with the establishment was awe-inspiring. I never knew gays were so ostracized and treated as sub-humans in San Francisco. They couldn't open a business establishment, or if they did, their neighbor merchants punished them by ignoring their existence. During the 70's, it was common fare for cops to raid a gay establishment and it didn't matter if they were well-dressed doctors or lawyers, everyone was beaten to a pulp.
After watching the movie, I could say that I still don't like gays personally, but now I think I see them with compassion. They deserve to live like human beings with the same rights as anyone (except marriage which I believe should be between men and women.)
I admire Mojo's Dad. If there's any great example of how to treat one's son, one's friend, one's sibling who has a same-sex preference, Mojo's Dad is the ultimate example for everyone to emulate.
As for me. Live and let live.
Goodtimes!!
(Photos of Sean Penn as Harvey Milk from www.iwatchstuff.com)
