Those who want to interview me via email about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights can send an email to danton_ph@yahoo.com Those who want to volunteer for the campaign of Ang Ladlad can send an email to Ms Bemz Benedito, Ang Ladlad Secretary, at myinsidebemz@yahoo.com Those who want to volunteer for my senatorial run can also send an email to me at the above-mentioned email. Thanks a lot. Super.

By Danton Remoto Remote Control Views and Analysis section www.abs-cbnnews.com Are Filipino teenagers having more sex than their elders? Are they safe when they do it? Are they getting married earlier? What gives them their high? These questions and more are answered by the book Youth in Transition: The Challenges of Generational Change in Asia, edited by Fay Gale and Stephanie Fahey. The Philippine essay is done by Joseph H. Puyat of the Department of Psychology, University of the Philippines. Happily, Professor Puyat reports that more and more Filipinos are delaying their marriages. That would be good for maternal health and lesser children mortality rate for the country. “As of the year 2000, around 73 percent of males between the ages of 20 and 24 are still single. For females, the proportion is about 57 percent. Ten years ago, the proportion of men who have never been married is 63.3 percent, whereas for women it is 45.5 percent. The figures are significantly smaller for women, w...

Published on Sun.Star Network Online (http://www.sunstar.com.ph) Cebu Sun Star Newspaper Front Page May 16, 2009 WHILE Ang Ladlad may have been dropped from the official list of party-list candidates for the May 2007 elections for “not having enough members,” it assured that next year will be different. “We now have eight regional chapters,” said Danton Remoto, the group’s chairperson. Ang Ladlad has “enough” for the elections, with the group hoping to establish 12 regional chapters across the country before May 2010. It is a national organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Filipinos. It will file its certificate for accreditation as a party-list organization with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on July 30. In a meeting with local supporters, Remoto appointed Orly Cajegas as Ang Ladlad-Cebu chapter head. “We are aiming, for sure, for one seat in Congress. But I’m personally hoping that we would get three seats,” Remoto said. Under Republic Act 7941, 20 perce...

Danton Remoto Remote Control Views and analysis www.abs-cbnnews.com Several weekends ago, I visited a college and talked to their students. They usually ask me about communication and the art of writing. If not that, then they ask me to give a talk on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights and issues. I always like talking to young people because they are so vibrant. They ask so many questions and that is good, because they want to know the answers as well. I think it is this casual impertinence and insatiable curiosity that are the hallmarks of the young and the restless. And it is these qualities that might fuel the so-called youth vote that all presidentiables are now angling for. This reminds me of a small run-in with a presidential wannabe in 2010, a man who loves to shoot his mouth off without knowing the facts and figures at hand. With imaginary poise, he told me breathlessly: “Professor Remoto, there is no such thing as a youth vote. They would rather go to Starbucks or ...

The first salvo of the ANC Leadership Forum for presidential candidates gets underway tomorrow, Monday, 7 pm. It will be broadcast live from Leong Hall of the Social Sciences Building, Ateneo de Manila University. The line-up so far of those who have said yes: Mar Roxas, Chiz Escudero, Jojo Binay. I am sure Loren Legarda and Manny Villar would also join. What about Noli de Castro? I hope so. But this being a discussion where questions will be taken from a live audience, I do not think Noli will be too eager to join this one. I do not mind if the presidential candidates answer in Filipino or in English. What I do mind are brainless answers from minds not fully engaged, or not engaged at all, in the issues of the day.

Posted on: Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 3:17 pm www.frankahan.com *** Well, well, well, I was surfing the web when I saw this. I was not able to watch the show of Mo Twister because I go home late from my work at the United Nations Development Programme in Makati. I thank Senator Drilon for considering me. I have already signed up with LP, but have not yet taken the oath of office. That means, in simple English, I am still a free agent. And is still talking to the rest of the world. Which I am doing. Every week. Which accounts for these short, elliptical sentences. Talking to political operators and campaign managers. Leads to a meltdown in one's brain cells. Which makes me wonder. What am I doing here? *** “Unless the Filipino people remains vigilant, the prospect of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo extending his stay in power as prime minister is a real possibility and the primary reason why Liberal Party President Sen. Mar Roxas is my favorite presidential candidate in 2010 is bec...

1. I have read the book gerilya sa powell street but need to re-read it so i could write the review. 2. maybe the blogger who commented on the "shit" comment on ricky lee's unfinished novel is right, but let me check again my copy of the phil free press . it must be my senior moment. 3. my name is danton and not john, john is so generic a name. i was named after a french leader of the revolution -- whose head got cut off. 4. somebody asked me who gave me the idea i will win as a senator in the 2010 elections? how dare you, he berated me, for running with only a pink blog as your publicity weapon. i have no idea that i will win. but what i can tell you is that several political operators and campaign managers of different parties have asked me to meet with them. and since my training is to talk to all comers and listen to all offers, i have set meetings with them. since i live in quezon city, i said to one of them could we meet in gateway, cubao? too public, he answered. h...

Danton Remoto Remote Control Views and analysis www.abs-cbnnews.com Thirty years ago I joined an essay-writing contest for Quezon City high-school students and won for this piece, written when I was 14 years old. I recently unearthed this while fixing my files. Let us see if times have changed for the bagets nowadays. * * * It has been said that a mother’s hands shape the world. From cradle to college and even long afterward, a mother nags, laughs, cries and goads you to be not just what you are but what you can be. “Your mother belongs to the old school,” my father will say when we are baffled by her actions. She barks orders like a platoon sergeant, telling us children to fold our blankets, flatten our bed sheets and not to leave our dirty clothes on the floor like molten snake’s skin. She also orders us to arrange our books, dust the windows, and sweep the leaves in the yard now that the maid has gone back to her hometown to join the fiesta and the baile (dance). My mother is a worr...

i have received many inquiries on how to succeed in a country where people do not read books. first, let us define what success means for you. if it means the ability to write well, with technical expertise and the gift to transmute ideas into emotions and experience on the page, then maybe the following would help: 1. If you write prose, master grammar and the elements of style. That is also the title of the iconic book of strunk and white. 2. Read the classics. I do not mean just the Western classics, but also the Eastern ones. And as important these days, the Asian and Southeast Asian writings, focusing on the Philippines. As TS Eliot said in Tradition and the Individual Talent, we stand on the bones of our ancestors not to bury them deeper, but for us to reach loftier heights. In short, you should know what has been written, build on it to enrich your writing, and scope around for some new things (Ezra Pound's "make it new") that can be the focus and fulcrum of your ...