“I Was Once Gay But I Cured Myself”

Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte delivered a speech to Japan‘s Filipino community last week at the special session of the International Conference on “The Future of Asia,” and shocked the whole continent when he said “I was once gay but I cured myself” by marrying beautiful women.

During the speech, Duterte mocked political opponent Sen. Antonio Trillanes and said a gay person had told him Trillanes appeared to be gay.

“They said, ‘You ask any gay person who sees Trillanes move, they’ll say he’s gay.’ No wonder. Good thing Trillanes and I are similar. But I cured myself.”

The rumoured-to-be-gay Antonio Trillanes replied in a statement on Monday that “By admitting his gay past, I am beginning to be suspicious of the true nature of Duterte‘s seeming obsession towards me.”

Fortunately, while Duterte “confessed” that he used to be gay, he told the crowd his “gay phase” ended when he began a relationship with his former wife Elizabeth Zimmerman, Philippines news outlet Rappler reported. Zimmerman was a flight attendant when they married in 1973; they split in 2000. However, Duterte and his current partner Honeylet Avancena have been linked since the 1990s.

“I said, this is it. I became a man again. I hated handsome men afterward. I now prefer beautiful women.”

Why yes, he does love his women. He ended the event in Tokyo by inviting several women from the audience to kiss him. The 71-year-old leader said “First, you shouldn’t be married, okay? Second, you’re not a minor.” He then pointed out four particular women and had them brought up onstage.

To his credit, Duterte seems to know what to say when it’s necessary — during his presidential campaign, he appeared to have liberal views on the subject and said the Bible should have recognised gays. But in his three years president, he seems to be more open to being himself and living his truth (!).

In March 2017, Duterte said marriage was only for a man and woman. As well as this, he has frequently used homophobic slurs as insults to imply weakness and/or wickedness in his political enemies, including Communist rebels, the former US ambassador to Philippines, and even Catholic priests. Duterte is extremely critical of the Catholic church, especially after the church criticised his war on drugs this January. He then claimed most of the country’s Catholic bishops were gay and publicly called them “sons of b*tches.” He has also made some quite controversial comments about rape. Last September, he said:

“As long as there are many beautiful women, there will be more rape cases.”

In more optimistic news, just one week before Duterte‘s homophobic comment, Taiwan — an Asian country only a two-hour flight from Philippines — legalised gay marriage.