The cause of Gretchen Diez suddenly bursted like a balloon that hit a nail’s tip. You can only imagine how he united the LGBTQ+ community and even the silent liberals who all came to her defense after news came out that she was bulied and refused entry to a women’s room inside a mall by a restroom attendant. He had the best opportunity to sound off the call to promote the social and political rights of the other sex among the predominantly Catholic Filipinos and those whose level of literacy were artificially enhanced by the empowerment they get from the social media. Then came his own demons exposing his own inconsistencies and conflict.

Fame afflicted his mind like a deadly virus. Imagine from being a mere citizen and member of the LGBTQ+ community being summoned to the Senate and meet the likes of Bato de la Rosa, Bong Go and Imee Marcos and get to brush elbows and take pictures with them. 

Malacañang called on hand him and a photo opportunity with President Rodrigo Duterte resulted to a statement coming from the country’s main man that he wanted all establishments both public and private to construct restrooms for the LGBTQ+.

The mainstream media covered him that give his community a fair airtime and space to call for action and understanding.

Then came the moment of truth. The same medium that gave him the opportunity to be heard revealed the pretentious and shallow mindset he had towards his own being.

Asked of his future plan of actions, Gretchen Diez a male dressed as a female confidently declared that he is willing to give politics a try and run for public office in order to push gender equality. 

Boom!

The noise that the LGBTQ+ community capitalized after the much publicized restroom incident involving Diez shattered. The likes of Danton Remoto and other LGBTQ+ prominent members were caught off-guard and expressed their dismay. 

Gretchen Diez is actually not pushing for equality. He only wanted personal satisfaction and publicity.

Run for public office. Run for public office? Are you nuts Gretchen? How many elected and appointed government officials are holding key government positions and yet they have not even legislated or imposed reforms in order to give your socially ascribed sexuality equality?

Here lies the problem of several socio-cultural issues and conflicts. Many believe that the best way to resolve it is thru politics or worst getting elected into public office. This is not to say that it is entirely wrong or impossible. Given the current political culture however, the idea of Gretchen Diez is beyond any possibility.

Social acceptance may have been achieved through legislated and political means in the context of the struggle of the black Americans who fought for equality and their basic rights decades ago. Even then, the struggle continues noting how liberal their mindsets are and how high the level of literacy is now.

To say that a human with a penis and has the feelings of and dresses as a female can pee inside a woman’s room or a human with a vagina and has the feelings of and dresses as a male can stand inside and pee on the urinals inside a men’s room by way of legislation is absurd.

What the LGBTQ+ need is social acceptance and self-respect. As they say, respect begets respect. One can’t simply legislate acceptance and respect or push it by way of getting elected into public office.

The social acceptance for the likes of Diez is a long and lengthy process. It must begin from within His case and his own self even made the acceptance that he had been wanting difficult and complicated. After the noise he created, the CCTV clip about what happened was shown and there goes his first lie. The attendant which according to her was rude in truth was very calm and respectful. Days later, stories of him getting fired from his job because of sexually harrassing a sleeping male co-worker came out and spread like the Amazon wild fire.

On the other hand, murder is patently not allowed by law but everyday we wake up with stories about one killing another and the cold-bloodied murders continue even with several legislations prohibiting and penalizing it. 

Human beings are inherently respectful animals however they are culture-bound. To say that culture is easily changed or altered is a product of a wild imagination. Blending it with politics makes the whole thing more complicated.

The LGBTQ+ are here. They are not yet fully accepted by the community where they belong though. One thing is certain, they are under the process of being accepted hardly as it maybe. They should allow time to play. Pushing it harder will only make the whole process of acceptance more difficult.