🌈 My Opinion to All Young Homophobic Out There. 😡 #NoToWampepte

Social Media recently especially Facebook became toxic nowadays. Instead of using the technology to make life easier, use it in a good way, and communicate love ones; it went to the media of sharing hates and prejudice.

Recently,  a hashtag #NoToWamPepte became trending, I was stumbled upon this hashtag as it may sound funny to me at first but when seeing it in a broader perspective, it is totally an innovative way of hating the LGBTQIA. The message might make us laugh but the subliminal message behind it – it will affect silently and destructively to a certain group of individuals.

Young people are planting hate to gays in this kind of post. Despite the 80 thousand attendees of the Manila Pride Parade last June 2019 in Marikina- as a sign of the strong voice of LGBTQIA community in the Philippines being heard, homophobia is still rampant in the country.

Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBTQIA). It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, may be based on irrational fear and ignorance.

It saddens me, but we cannot blame these few individuals who are homophobic. We always have two sides of the coins. These young teenagers might have a rigid reason why they hate gays and continue spreading hates against PLU.

Meanwhile, “WAMPEPTE” is a gay slang of One Fifty which means One hundred Fifty Pesos. It means, it is a general amount of money that gay people are being offered initially to young teenagers to have s*x in return – eg. Out of school youth, Online Game Players in various computer shops, Students, Bystanders, and likes - who are in need of penny to sustain their “needs”, but most likely “wants”. This trade is not a secret but it is discreetly done as the majority of the involved teenagers are minors. And the other party who patronized these teenagers are professionals and most of them are discreet gays who are afraid to get involved in future controversy.

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“Iwasan ang WAMPEPTE, Para Si JUNJUN ay Healthy”, since wampepte is already associated to gays, it is obviously generalizing that gays are the carrier of sexually transmitted diseases. This also saddens me, but I cannot blame these youngsters. According to an article by Outrage Magazine, a 14 years old named Rod got diagnosed with HIV as a result of accepting money from gays and had s*x.

Rod – and his whole family – only knew about his HIV status a few days ago.

Apparently, Rod told his father he had sex with gay men, admitting that the money he gets from them, he uses to pay for his luho (vices), including playing DOTA, to buying whatever tickles his fancy. As soon as his disclosure, his father took him to the barangay health center nearest their house.

Truly, I must say that- at the end of the day, there is always a reason why one or group of individuals hated against another group of individuals. As we always said, there are two sides of the coins. The one who hates and the one got the hate – both have reasons and stories that we must listen and pay attention.