Ladlad: From Literature To Life

Danton Remoto, Ateneo professor, co-editor of Ladlad: Anthology Of Philippine Gay Writing (with Neil Garcia; Danton writes a bit about the anthology here), and editor of Afraid: The Best Philippine Ghost Stories (here's a review by The Bibliophile Stalker), has had his speech (delivered before the College Editors' Guild Of The Philippines National Conference last May 22, 2006) published online at ABS-CBN News Online.

"Gay writing is no longer outside the house. It stands in the center of the room.

Words are deeds, as the philosopher Wittsgenstein has said. But in Philippine politics, words are not deeds. Words have no currency after the last polling station has closed, the last vote counted, the new winner proclaimed. Worthless are the words. They just crumble in the dry wind.

Deeds are what we need. But beyond the physical infrastructure of roads, bridges and school buildings; harbors, piers, and airports, we also need the spiritual infrastructure.

The spiritual infrastructure is anchored on the belief that our leaders are the ones we voted for; the knowledge that our country can stand on its own two feet again; the hope that, one day, we can ask the more than 8 million Filipinos abroad to return home if only for a while, to savor the sun and the sea and the sand, the company of parents and relatives and friends, bask in the reality that this beautiful country is finally moving forward, the way it did in the 1960s.

This is the stark point taught to us by all great political movements. To paraphrase the German writer Goethe: "There is nothing as powerful, there is nothing as invincible, than an idea whose time has come."

Let us allow Ang Ladlad to have its Brokeback Moment in government. We promise grammatical English, good fashion sense, and short speeches—shorter than this one I was asked to deliver today."