Manny, Manny, Manny...
I distinctly remember the day that the reporting of the news turned on its head for me. I was in my parents’ room, sitting on their bed and fiddling with my plastic orange-colored hippopotamus-shaped Walkman. They were tuned in to CNN, and on came a rather lengthy segment regarding Hillary Clinton’s new haircut. I remember stopping the manual winding of my Beatles Hard Day’s Night cassette and wondering, “Why does this matter?” (I’m sure Hillary, shown stepping off the plane with her hair in the breeze, was thinking the same thing with maybe a few more expletives.)
The advent of social media and the dissemination of information on an international scale, to parts of the world unrealized, have created a need for public figures to be much more than what they might actually be capable of. It’s not enough to be a sharp political mind, a well-honed and remarkable athlete, a skilled actor, or a beautiful and lithe model. It’s no longer enough to be armed with good looks, a personable demeanor, and charm outside of actual proficiency in your chosen field (which, if you have the former, can actually be negotiable). Today’s celebrity needs to be armed with an opinion on every possible hot-button topic, simply because they are public figures, even if the topic at hand may actually require a more educated response.
We saw this clearly earlier this week with none other than Manny Pacquiao. Early this week, he started an interwebs forest fire with a statement on same-sex unions. He said that animals are more attuned to what nature intended, because they at least understand that they are supposed to mate with the opposite sex, where as same-sex couples are brutally lower than these said animals for defying nature.
HUGE CONSEQUENCES
The consequences have been huge, with backlash from fellow athletes, including his greatest opponent Floyd Mayweather, expressing an opposing opinion. The sports brand Nike, which carries a staunch reputation for remaining neutral amid its celebrity endorsers’ blow-ups severed ties with Pacquiao and released a statement calling his proclamations on same-sex unions “abhorrent.” Other endorsement deals are likely to follow suit.
If you’re anywhere on social media or have an Internet connection, you’ve heard everyone and their mothers give their two cents about the matter. So just to get this out of the way, it is clear that Manny Pacquiao as a legislator first, and as a public figure with a wide reach to an impressionable audience, needs to be held accountable for his statement, including the pathetic excuse of an apology that followed. (Also known as his crisis management team’s failed Hail Mary pass.) There is no one in this world, whether saved by God or loved by many, who deserves to get away with dehumanizing the very essence of a person simply because they have loved — much less recant with, “Whoops, sorry your feelings got hurt. God knows I meant well while I stand here arms crossed, obviously not that sorry.”
But at the same time, this is a prime opportunity to really look at how much credence we give celebrity opinion. We all know, at the very core of our being, that every man is born with dignity and with a right to the very basic of necessities, including love. And while what Pacquiao said is inherently and completely wrong, one man’s opinion does not change the value of who you are and what you are worth. In fact, a statement like that should be viewed as something so absurd that it should be left to the wolves. We know better, and while our indignation may be righteous, we also need to keep a healthy amount of perspective in the face of stupid people saying stupid things. Consider the source as much as the content being spewed out so recklessly.
NEWFOUND MORAL CODE
This is a man who’s widely rumored to have been a serial womanizer while married, to have fathered an illegitimate child outside of his marriage, to have been so neck-deep in gambling that he rarely saw his family, and yet, somehow finds the stones to stand on a soapbox dispensing judgment. This is a man who, despite parading some newfound moral code, doesn’t mind participating in a sport that’s characterized by its cornerstone of gambling. And most importantly, this is a man who, despite his qualms about supposed animal-like behavior from humans, makes a living being a prized bet in a cockfight. He is not a paragon of virtue, and putting that statement into the perspective of the kind of man Pacquiao seems to be makes it as ridiculous as Donald Trump dispensing hair advice.
The issue here is not Pacquiao’s skewed sense of morality, but of the message itself. You can call him names and talk as much smack as you want, but anyone who’s seen the man knows there is no way he got to “gays are worse than animals” all by himself. While he needs to be held accountable for what comes out of his mouth, we also need to follow the train of thought to its inception, because we need to start killing ignorance at the root. We need to challenge the people and the institutions who are perpetuating a culture of hate and discrimination under the guise of godliness and goodwill, and we need to find the vulnerable who are listening to this hate speech and possibly taking it to heart. We need to educate more openly, and in some ways, more aggressively. We cannot just stand by anymore and plead for tolerance, because it is not enough. Our LGBTQ brothers and sisters deserve acceptance and nothing less.
‘I HAVE A LOT OF GAY FRIENDS…’
We have to stop allowing our friends to start statements with words like, “I have a lot of gay friends and I love them, but…” If you know and love someone who is gay, there is no reason to stand idly by while they’re treated as though they don’t have the same rights. Whoever wants to build a life with a person of their choosing deserves to do so, and they deserve to have the protection of the state backing their union. They should be able to share in the fruits of their labor, not only in giving to one another, but in legally being able to consolidate properties and holdings. They should be able to be at their love’s bedside when the end of life is near, and endure the process as the person who has been there through the years. And they should be able to do so regardless of what their sexual orientation may be, because a life built with someone you love is not a question of religion, but is in itself an institution that deserves recognition and protection.
The year after the State of New York decided to legally recognize same-sex marriage, I was privileged enough to be in the city for Pride. And at the march, there were your stereotypical flamboyant gay floats with feathers and JLo jams, but also, the length of it was composed of old couples holding signs. It said things like, “Together for 65 years, recognized by the state for 18 weeks.” And that’s really what we should be fighting for when we raise our voices against the bigotry that faces samesex couples. It is much more than recanting the words of an overly concussed reformed womanizer. What we’re fighting for is basic human understanding, and the understanding that not everything about sexual orientation stops at the act of sexual intercourse.
We must uplift the varying portraits of homosexuality, to break the stereotype of old and to remind the ignorant of the fact that there is no one face to the varying landscape of sexual orientation. LGBTQ sounds confusing and daunting and foreign, but none are as familiar as your brother, your aunt, your cousin, your friend. There are no animals here, just people being people. Everyone here is trying their best to be good, decent, happy, and if they’re lucky, possibly find a love that sticks. And no matter who it’s with, that love is and will always be love.
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We need to keep a healthy amount of perspective in the face of stupid people saying stupid things. Consider the source as much as the content.