the L in LGBT

Ang lesbyana sa Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender.

Although I am not comfortable in calling myself a lesbian, I sometimes do just to distance myself from "tibo" stereotypes. Terrible stereotypes make me settle for a foreign term "lesbian" which is often detached from who I really am.

Stereotypes of the TIBO identity in the Philippines includes the following;

1. Always aggressive in conversations (laging galit sa mundo)
2. Beats the crap out of her live in partner (like any overly macho Filipino would)
3. Rapes women (sabi ng kapitbahay ko)
4. Wants to be a man (sabi nila. sino nga ba "sila"? ewan.)
5. Doesn't talk much. (Parang tunay na lalake, hindi masalita)
6. Always wear men's clothes (Uber laking shirt at bandana)
7. Security Guard sa mall (no offense meant.)
8. Police woman (no offense meant din.)

Although in most cases these stereotypes are true (except number 3), it does not apply to everyone.

In the case of...
number 1, I don't know where that came from.

number 2, well, it is true in some abusive lesbian relationship because they just emulate an abusive hetorosexual relationship which is often a "norm" in our society. So most tibo, who lack better examples on how to be in girl to girl relationship, think that it is manly to beat her wife just like a macho Filipino would. So let's blame the abusive macho Filipino men for number 2.

Number 3, I don't know where this came from. Maybe it was just to scare children off.

Number 4, this is a common misconception. I will elaborate on this in a different post.

Number 5. Tibo don't talk much because they don't want to be on the spotlight. They just want to chill and pass off as a man. But some don't talk much because talking much is a girl thing.

Number 6, is related to number 4, which I will discuss in a different post. A tibo wears mens' clothes in her early childhood maybe for comfort, as in my case. Every tibo has her tomboy phase but most eventually grow out of it in college.

Number 7, that is just discriminatory. there is nothing wrong with being a security guard.

Number 8. This is tough. I think it's true. lol. Kidding aside, despite their masculine built because of rigorous training, we cannot really say if they are lesbians or not unless they wear their hearts out of their sleeves.

With all these stereotypes on the tibo identity, most would settle for lesbian identity. I really hope that society would recognize the diversity in the LGBT community. The LGBT rainbow represents how different we really are and that they should not lump us all in one box of stereotypes. I want to be called tibo because it's closer to home, but first i want tibo identity to be freed from stereotypes.