The Angel

My mother shared an anecdote last Sunday on how I ended up calling her Mama,  while I called my father Daddy. She said when I was less than a year older, she taught me to call her Mama , which I did. But every time she taught me to call my father Papa , I would shake my head and motion to her that papa  is to eat. So eventually she ended up teaching me to call my father Daddy-- which stuck. "Even when you were a baby, you were already stubborn," she said, laughing. Many years hence, my parents (mostly my mother) and I have had many skirmishes when they forced something on me that I didn't want. Whether it was going to mass every day or abstaining from meat every Friday; sleeping in the summer afternoons or choosing the books to read (my mother once destroyed a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when some misguided Church leader said it was of the devil)--I've always stood my ground when I really didn't want it . 

It was while watching Marvel's The Avengers  that I realized why it's such an uphill battle for the gay community to achieve equal rights or gain even a modicum of respect from the rest of the world. When the superheroes were fighting each other, I remembered an article I read earlier about the movie, how the director fought for Black Widow to be included in the lineup. His argument was simple: take the woman out and it becomes a very homoerotic movie. I don't know how my mind connects these things, but it's hard for us to get a foothold of being treated as equals, because we ourselves have certain biases within us. There's a certain kind of gay that's acceptable and there are those who are only good for ridicule. P're effem ka ba?  While I don't see anything wrong in preferring certain types when looking for a partner or relationship, I find it sad how others could be so condemning of something that's inherent--and maybe even unchangeable--on some