I won the first Press Freedom Gayest title in 2003 wearing a pink Jojo Romoff shawl with jet black beadwork hastily wrapped around me as a “dress,” pasty makeup, and
a nasty wig. Flanking me in this photograph are Heidi Campbell and this page’s assistant editor, Niza Mariñas, both with Cebu Daily News, although I won this title for
SunStar, where I was then a lifestyle editor. There are no mentions of this online, or photographs of my winning moment, except in an article by The Freeman’s Ryan Mark Borinaga, who won the same title two years later.
You see, I had to practically beg every media outfit to keep this from publication.
At the time, I was still living in my father’s house, and seeing his eldest son so flamboyantly-dressed would have given him a heart attack. The trimedia was kind to me, and respected my wishes, so this will be the first time this photograph makes it on print, 15 years after. I reconstructed this memory also in the spirit that the first and only Press Freedom Week celebration was founded upon, camaraderie: the photo was taken by SunStar’s Alex Badayos, I am flanked by Cebu Daily News editors, and the details of it I sourced from The Freeman’s article. Brothers and sisters in journalism jubilant in the freedom to express the truth. Even more so in the age of that dreadful neologism: Fake News.
The Gayest title has ceased to exist for many reasons, and not for the lack of gay men in the industry, thank you. Through the years the gay men in Cebu journalism have broken free from cross-dressing, revealing that there are other incarnations to being homosexual than the stereotypical swishy, exaggeratedly female, wigged-out variety.
As sure as it is a sign that our understanding of this subculture is steadily improving, it is also a sign that transgendered journalists like myself are no longer a sideshow attraction to the more mainstream Mr. and Miss Press Freedom, the 15th edition of which I witnessed last Saturday with The Freeman’s Lorraine Mitzi Ambrad and Cebu Daily News’ Raul Tabanao crowned on the week of the 26th Cebu Press Freedom Week.
But there are constant reminders of how homophobia rears its ugly head. Earlier in the day, I was asked to host the opening of LENS, a collection of 36 photographs taken by Cebu’s award-winning photojournalists spearheaded by Cebu Pacific Air, Robinson’s Galleria, and the 26th Cebu Press Freedom Week celebration, on display the entire week a the ground floor of the mall.
CHARO LOGARTA-LAGAMON, Corporate Communications Director of Cebu Pacific Air; Judilyn Quiachon, Chief of Staff of Department of Tourism Region VII; Congressman Raul del Mar; Edra Benedicto, Editor-
in-Chief of Cebu Daily News; and Floramie Adolfo, Senior Operations Manager of Robinsons Galleria open the LENS exhibit at the ground floor of Robinsons Galleria Cebu
Lurking around at the exhibit I saw a familiar face that I couldn’t quite place until after the event. Joanna something, a woman who used to work for another mall and credited for asking a show director to “please let [Jude] host it offstage kay bayot man gud siya, dili siya in line with our branding.” No less than Secretary Rene Almendras apologized for her shortsightedness, and in a delicious twist, I launched my very first episode of Jud Morning! (a television show I anchored for close to a decade on ABS-CBN) at that same mall.
Although I am saddened that she’s bringing her brand of homophobia to an establishment that is becoming a new favorite among Cebuanos, it presents a new opportunity to show how one can crush this outdated form of hatred properly: under slick, six-inch, red-soled, Louboutin stilettos.