Oh, that sticker!

Task: Wear the "I love lesbian and gay rights" sticker everywhere you go for seven days.

The not-so-sticky stickers

I had mixed feelings. At first, I thought the task was something that I could do effortlessly. But I soon realized how daunting it was. I felt that I would be screaming my sexuality to the whole population of the metro just be wearing it. And that is something I find unnecessary—letting everyone and anyone know that I am gay. Just so everyone knows, I don't hide it. I just happen to be unconsciously discreet as my friends would put it. 

I am gay. My friends, family and school mates know that. They do because they have to and I want them to. But the random people I take the jeepney with, bump to in the malls and walk around with while trying to get to school on time don’t. They just don’t. And this gave me butterflies. It got to the point that I had forced myself to believe that I didn’t need to do this experiment because of the feelings I had against it.

But after a long rant, I thought I had been missing the whole point. If I, or anyone, would read the sticker, it only said: I love lesbian and gay rights. That’s all. “Rights” is the operative word—exactly the same thing my professor had told us. So after overcoming this dilemma, I had finally decided to go through the experiment and just see what would happen.

My initial plan was to stick it on the front of my bag and made it look like it was one of those statement pins. In that way, I wouldn’t feel too hard on myself worrying about what others would think when they saw the sticker on my chest. Again, I just don't see the point of letting anyone, strangers at that, know of my sexuality.

But having it on my bag proved to have both good and bad points. The good point was that almost all passengers in the jeepneys I had taken saw the sticker (I always rest my bag on my lap, with the front facing other passengers). And almost all of them gave me a few glances from time to time—they would first look at my face, then at the sticker then back at my face. This happened a few times before I had even figured out why. And the funny thing was I had forgotten that I had the sticker on my bag. So, I guess that was their reaction to the stimulus (me and the sticker).

I must say, some of the glances were a tad bit judgmental. But that was not the bad point. To hell with them anyway. I lost the sticker. And yes, that was bad. 

With my orgamtes Faith, Telle and Charry

These seemingly judgmental glances though never happened while inside the university especially in my college. In fact, an orgmate thought the sticker was cute and asked for it. Truth is, the common reaction of my college mates was their enthusiastic keri, a gay speak which translates to "okay" or "fine" in English. I asked, why the indifferent reaction? They basically all said that one, it’s normal, and second, they already knew about my sexuality and my support for gay rights anyway. 

The same thing happened at home--the expected Q&A then keri. 

So after seven days of wearing the sticker, I thought that non-UP students could not care less; in fact most would find it cute. And yes, wearing the stickers didn't cause me harm. It just really showed that the words lesbian and gay can make others uncomfortable.

PS: I didn't wear the sticker when I went on a post-Valentines date. The guy I used to date isn't out so I knew how awkward and uncomfortable it would had been for him. Who would want to spoil a date, right?