We love you, however keep hidden

The sample is acquainted. Queer love is appropriate solely when it’s quiet, muted, and simply ignored.

It’s February once more. The month of loud declarations of affection.

And someplace, possibly even close to you, a queer child is studying to cover slightly extra. To bury themselves into no matter silent types of “acceptable” that society calls for.

Can you actually blame them? 

When the viral resurgence of a 2024 “Shut the Hole” billboard by Closeup, displayed on the C5-Kalayaan interchange and that includes a real-life homosexual couple, incites a tsunami of hateful commentary from non secular teams condemning your entire LGBQTIA+ group, the message is painfully clear: Love is welcome, however provided that it is aware of its place.

@unileverpersonalcareph Try these new billboards alongside C5! At first look, it appears incomplete till you #DareToCloseTheGap to make the picture full 🌈 This satisfaction month, take the possibility to shut the hole with closeup and #DareToGetCloser and be #FreeToLove anybody your coronary heart needs 💖 #closeupPH ♬ unique sound – Peter Parker Lorenz

We’ve made nice strides in direction of equality for the Filipino LGBTQIA+ group in recent times. Nevertheless, moments like this expose how fragile that progress is. It takes solely a billboard advert exhibiting two males standing shut to one another to unravel years of supposed tolerance.

The feedback got here by the tons of. 

“It’s bastos.”

“It’s sinful.”

“It’s simply not the way in which life needs to be within the Philippines.”

After which probably the most insidious line of all “We love you, however that is an excessive amount of.”

In the end, what queer children hear is “We love you, however keep hidden.”

Abruptly, everybody on-line turns into an skilled on gender and sexuality. Pronouns are weaponized and he, she, they, and even it are thrown round to ridicule the “transformers” who dare to exist exterior the inflexible norms of society. Apparently, that is what passes for ethical discourse now.

What exhausts me most is how LGBTQIA+ Filipinos are constantly framed as entitled brats demanding particular remedy and asking for “an excessive amount of.”

They don’t seem to be.

They’re asking for what straight folks have already got — the liberty to exist brazenly, to like visibly, and to be handled with dignity. No matter one’s SOGIESC (sexual orientation, gender id and expression, and intercourse traits), we’re all human beings. And sure, even straight folks have SOGIESC. It simply not often turns into an issue when yours aligns with the bulk.

This discomfort round queer visibility is nothing new in Philippine promoting. Students have lengthy famous how manufacturers tread fastidiously round gay-themed content material, notably when intimacy is concerned, to keep away from backlash from heterosexual audiences (Cabosky, 2017). 

The Bench case

A transparent instance is Bench’s 2015 Valentine marketing campaign, “Love All Sorts of Love.” As Balangue et al (2023) notice, the lesbian couple featured within the EDSA Guadalupe billboard was introduced too cautiously from restrained wardrobe, minimal intimacy, and no specific acknowledgment of their relationship, a lot in order that they may have simply been mistaken for sisters or shut buddies. In the meantime, one other billboard for a similar marketing campaign that includes a homosexual couple holding arms was defaced with black paint.

The sample is acquainted. Queer love is appropriate solely when it’s quiet, muted, and simply ignored.

However that incident occurred over a decade in the past.

And but right here we’re in 2026, watching how a remarkably tame Closeup billboard with no grand gestures ignites ethical panic once more. So what precisely is the issue? How a lot smaller should queer love turn out to be earlier than it’s deemed acceptable? What number of instances should or not it’s softened, blurred, or erased to maintain straight audiences comfy?

Because of this Closeup’s determination to face its floor issues.

This isn’t “wokeness.” It’s a model refusing to retreat when confronted with bigotry. It’s an acknowledgment that visibility isn’t provocation, slightly it’s affirmation.

Importantly, Closeup’s response extends past symbolism. As students like Parsons and Perreault (2022) argue, real allyship requires tangible motion, not simply model aesthetics. To its credit score, Closeup introduced the inclusion of free HIV self-testing kits in its toothpaste containers addressing stigma and contributing to pressing public well being conversations round rising HIV instances within the nation.

That type of transfer doesn’t magically repair discrimination. But it surely does sign one thing uncommon. A willingness to take accountability, even when inclusivity prices shoppers and invitations backlash.

So sure, hats off to Closeup for selecting to remain seen when it might have been simpler to again down. In a society that retains telling queer folks, “We love you, however keep hidden,” selecting to be seen, whether or not as a model or as an individual, is already an act of braveness. 

And for that queer child quietly watching all of this unfold, that visibility might imply the distinction between shrinking inwards or surviving loudly. – Rappler.com

Noel Sajid I. Murad is an assistant professor within the Division of Advertising and Promoting at De La Salle College (DLSU) and serves because the director for analysis of the Philippine Affiliation for Communication and Media Analysis, Inc. (PACMRI).

The views shared on this piece are solely the writer’s and don’t essentially characterize the official views of De La Salle College, its school, or its administration.