Philippine E-Journals

Brothers, Lovers, and Revolution: Negotiating Military Masculinity and Homosexual Identity in a Revolutionary Movement in the Philippines

Kaira Zoe K. Alburo

 

Abstract:

In an attempt to contribute to theorizing military masculinity and heteronormativity, I look at a ‘queer’ event that made headlines in the Philippines in 2005: the first ‘gay marriage’ in the country officiated by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA). As a Maoist inspired guerrilla movement, the NPA has waged war against the Philippine government since 1969 under the leadership of the CPP. The paper examines how the relations between masculinity, military and homosexual identities play out at different levels: ideology, institutions, subjective identities, and symbols. These elements come together and embody competing articulations about the masculine/sexual Filipino ‘revolutionary’, thus challenging heteronormative imaginaries of Philippine society. The paper concludes by demonstrating how gay cadres in the NPA negotiate their sexual identity in the context of military masculinity in the 21st century revolutionary movement.