FABULOUSNESS … with a PURPOSE!

OMG !!!  I have been searching for old photos and could not find any from my files … so I asked my friends and look what I have found !!!  This was sent by my best friend who saved all my photos in his laptop.  I could not believe I totally forgot about this one taken in 1999 or 2000??  (could not remember) Pride March in Melbourne.  This photo ended up in the local gay newspaper. 

Historically, this was my first ever public gay event and someone dared me to do drag and be the Safe Sex Slut and distribute condoms to people during the march as part of the awareness program of the Aids Council of Victoria - and I did!!!  Kalurkah Valdez!  I have to buy my first evah wiggaloo, some sexy black dress, and stockings from the Op Shop…. Excited ang geygah!  And I wanted to look like a young Lorna T yata so I had that black beauty spot on top of my lips … Emote, emote!  And the photographer made me sit on top of the PFLAG.  More Emote !!! Pang centerfold ng playboy ang pose, emote !!! Flash, flash!

And yes, I was still dalagita (single gurl) at that time… slutty and free

Funny me.  First time to wear high heels and lashes - but I did really enjoy the march and at the same time helped AIDS’ awareness program in Australia.  Ang gu-guapo pa ng mga escorts ko!

And that’s me… Beauty (or Beast) with a Purpose , Charing!!! 

 

 

 

 

HOLDING THE MAN (and eating him too), IN LIFE AND IN DEATH!

 

The night they learned they were diagnosed positive!

The actors playing Tim Conigrave and John Caleo (below).

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When I read the book (HOLDING THE MAN)  sometime in 2004,  and could not really get it at first because of too much Ozziness in its humour and slang (very Melbourne) - but could not stop reading it until the very end - and still reading it even if my eyes (and nose) were stung and flowing with tears  -  running down the pages - (and i thought I was dying as well!)  reading the whole book from night to sunrise and crying way too early in the morning - as if someone in my family died, or my boyfriend died, and felt that warm love for everyone  - I wished that everyone of my friends would read it too (and undergo the same catharsis as I did :).  I wished that this book was made into a film (they are working on it na), or a stage play perhaps!  (But that was just the Filipino in me, as the Ozzies are made of ice, in the emotional level, I thought) 

A year ago - - a play about Holding the Man was staged in Sydney.  And last night, I saw the preview in Melbourne.

Still I could not help myself from crying again, especially at the end of the play.  This time, from a deeper understanding, not just pure sentimentality that these two attractive gay guys deeply in love with each other despite their failings,  were so young and were dying of  AIDS related disease.

I would say that there is something about this biographical story that transcends time and boundaries made by men, by religion, by human conventions. 

It lets you close your eyes and see through your heart, to warmly embrace and comprehend the beautiful meaning of life and love, devoid of superficiality and even sentimentality. 

There is so much bravery, youthful energy and positive thoughts dispelling all fear, ignorance, stigma and negativity towards homosexuality and AIDS. 

And I think it is pure HONESTY and LOVE.

Love that transcends Sex and Death itself.  

I would say this is the Australian gay version of Erich Seagal’s Love Story,

 and once and for all redeeming the very fact that despite our differences we are all human beings - capable of experiencing love and relationships in various forms, degree and dimensions.

The final passages of the book are some of its most poignant, Tim said in the end;

I guess the hardest thing is having so much love for you and it somehow not being returned. I develop crushes all the time, but that is just misdirected need for you. You are a hole in my life, a black hole. Anything I place there cannot be returned. I miss you terribly.

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Links to reviews:

Catholic schoolboys’ story of LOVE and AIDS death.

AIDS, FRAGILE LOVE AND DYING

HOLDING THE MAN

And I found this most important link to the real photos of Timothy Conigrave and John Caleo:

HOLDING THE BABY

Tim Conigrave

 

 

THESE TWO,  ARE TRULY FOREVER YOUNG

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