When Manny Pacquiao was asked on his stance on same-sex marriage, and concurrently expressed his convictions, it reignited a whirlwind of debate online, others voiced with passion, others with biblical verses, but most remarkably, the great divide between those who accepted the LGBT community and those who do not.
Manny Pacquiao, a member of the Philippine Congress, a respected athlete, and who is currently running for the Senate, had perhaps unwittingly provoked the quiet principles of the Filipino community, the old prejudices that had remained, to say the least, dormant.
What exactly did he say?
“If we approve male on male, female on female (marriage), then man is worse than animal.”
It was a statement that had hurt the LGBT community, that had encouraged others to justify discrimination by quoting verses from the bible; it was a statement that sought to extol persecution in the name of religion. Naturally, members of the Community defended themselves, but it seemed that they were almost no match to battle against century-old beliefs and institutions.
Although gays, lesbians, transgenders, bisexuals, pansexuals, etc. lived amongst them, they were “tolerated” but not allowed their own voice, lest it be confined in comedy, beauty parlors, pageants. Pacquiao had commenced blatant homophobia.
It had soon become apparent to me the uncertainty of the future of the members of the LGBT. When will we be treated and given equal respect and legal rights? When will we stop begging and be recognized with the same human dignity when we are regarded as animals?
Fragments of Being 
Thanks for this blog post regarding Manny Pacquiao; I really enjoyed it and am definitely recommending this blog to my friends and family. I’m a 15 year old with a blog on finance and economics at shreysfinanceblog.com, and would really appreciate it if you could read and comment on some of my articles, and perhaps follow, reblog and share some of my posts on social media. Thanks again for this fantastic post.
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