PINK IS THE COLOR OF THE CRESCENT MOON

About the Author : Allyson Banga-an

Allyson Banga-an is a communications specialist from the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, Philippines. She is an alumni from Notre Dame University and a very experienced professional in humanitarian development such as program development and public relations. Banga-an is also a member of the LGBTQ Community, being a proud gay. She also heavily campaigns women empowerment and gender equality.

In the time of the writing of the story, homosexuality was heavily discouraged by the Muslim community as dealing with these matters is a “sin” and “heresy”. Even in 2007, LGBT members were banned from entering Jolo according to a local religious group and there have been tons of LGBT related crimes in Muslim regions. There also have been numerous reports about LGBT members being discriminated among the Muslim societies and even within their families where they would disown their gay family members. In fact, the city of Marawi passed an ordinance which allows the discrimination of LGBT members (yet it is still being challenged in the court). Though this issue has somewhat been less talked about nowadays, rest assured that this type of discrimination is still present up to the recent times. 

SUMMARY

Pink is the Color of the Crescent Moon is one of the 16 personal essays penned by young Moro writers, in this case being Allyson Banga-an. In which the essay encapsulates the LGBT issues which are seldomly discussed openly in Moro communities. The author portrays his somewhat happy childhood in a madrasah. Stating early that he is fond of the color pink and other things deemed “for-girls-only”. Not only that, he and his sister dominated and were in top honors, unfortunately the school stopped operating. Nonetheless, he still blossomed into a proud Magindanaon diva, free from words that are against his sexual orientation, due to his parents and ustadz never mentioning nor articulating anything in relation to what is said before.

However, everything changed when he entered an all-boys Catholic school. In which, the author narrates the discrimination and prejudice he experienced as a young gay student in an all-boy catholic school. The author also identifies and separates discrimination by the level of tolerance and acceptance he experienced and felt between the madrasah and the catholic school. Ultimately culminating to his own conclusion that only oneself can make his or her own life. In the authors words, “There might be the pitfalls and setbacks, but I rise up to pick up the broken pieces and move on. If porcine beasts can’t fly, maybe a queer, brown diva can.”

Diction: The author uses words that corresponds to a more literate peron by using  the words misogyny, flabbergasted ,deviant, and others giving it formal approach to the readers .Which it connects to our main character of the essay.

Perspective :The perspective of the essay is base on the main character’s point of view which is also the narrator of the essay as he uses the pronoun “I” giving it a perspective of  first person point of view.

Tone :The tone of the story has nostalgic tone in the first part of the essay as the main character  reminisce his happy childhood life as his folks never mention and articulated against his sexual orientation but the tone changed to angry, sincere  and sarcastic  as he progress in life encountering many hurdles especially in his high  School life where he and his gay friend  were called by their principal.He was very angry with his  principal at that time and was being sarcastic about the hypocrisy of the principal but he was really sincere about his sexual orientation about that time that he was a proud homosexual person .

Purpose:The purpose of the essay “Pink is the color of the Crescent Moon” is to inform the readers the life and experiences of the main character as the main character which is the narrator  describes and shows  his thoughts about his experience in the past 2 decades as a homosexual person.

Style:The style of writing the author shows  a personal style of writing   which he  expresses his feelings and thoughts about the subject and has looser structure because of having a more personal type of style giving it a narrative approach to us readers.

LITERARY CRITIC

FEMINIST QUEER LITERARY APPROACH

Pink is the Color of the Crescent Moon is one of the essays in the 119-page Moro book entitled Children of the Ever-Changing Moon edited by Gutierez Mangansakan II and published in 2007. This prose non-fiction narrative essay was written by Allyson Banga-an discussing his real-life experiences as a homosexual in a Muslim community in the early 20th century.

Homosexuality in the Philippines in the early 2000s was only recognized as an element for entertainment and comedy shows (Reuters, 2004). In other institutions, homosexuals are discriminated against and even stripped off of their rights to education, work, and such. According to Lesbian and Gay Statutory Advocacy Network Philippines (2004), several private co-educational schools ban homosexual conduct and deny entry to students who are considered to be homosexual. They also claimed that some companies would not hire “effeminate” male applicants or ask questions about marital status during a job interview in order to determine the sexual preference of the applicants.

Prejudices on homosexuality have been more distinct in rural communities than in urban areas. In Mindanao, one publication confirmed that 18-year-old Jejhon Macalinsal, among a group of young suspects who were detained by police in connection with a store bombing, said that he was being questioned daily and abused by the police because he was gay (Minda News 12 May 2002).These occurrences and stereotypes against homosexuality are one of the inspirations of Allyson Banga-an in writing his narrative essay Pink is the Color of the Crescent Moon. 

       In the earlier parts of the essay, no one was against his sexual identity, despite being adamant about his sexual preference. But when he moved to a Catholic School, despite his obedience, the narrator and his friend were summoned by the principal.

“She continued her inquest by asking, “But how do you act? Like boys or girls? ”

‘Without batting our L’Oreal mascara-ed eyelashes, we declared in unison, “Like girls!” Then she started her litany and the earth shook and swallowed us whole.’

That statement from the essay proves that bigotry against homosexuality could be from the least expected person. Despite the experience and competence of his principal, she remained indifferent to the sexual orientation of her students. 

Then she delivered her final blow: “Tell your parents to come so that you can sign a waiver promising to behave like real ‘boys’ lest you be denied enrollment in the next year.”

From the lines above, the situation shows that the powerless are the homosexuals, and the powerful is their heterosexual school principal. In this case, the principal or the powerful uses the authority to restrict the rights of homosexuals to education in order to manipulate them and make them act like ‘true boys’.

“I don’t know what happened to those medieval documents but let me assure you,

She failed in her campaign of terror. We graduated gay and proud!”

The narrator faces discrimination but he was able to withstand and govern against it. In this situation, the role of the powerful and powerless has shifted. The status change shows that as long as you know, manifest, and fight for your rights you will be able to free yourself from any form of bigotry.  

In the line, “Consider me lucky because three years after the inquest, gays were rounded up in Datu Piang after staging a gay beauty pageant, and were beaten up for allegedly causing a tornado that destroyed more than twenty houses in the town” although the narrator was far from the discriminations in his community. Prejudices are still present and continually affects not just him but all the other homosexuals. It implies that as long homophobia exists in our society, suffering will also continue to persist.

Maybe the experience in highschool scarred me so much I wanted to dig deeper into the intricacies of anatomy and physiology—is being boy or girl really different?

The experiences of the narrator from his high school, though he was able to escape from it, the ordeal was already there. That ordeal often brought him confusion and circumspection. It also delivers apprehension not just to him but to all the homosexuals from revealing their true color.

The essay was concluded with a meaningful line, “There might be the pitfalls and setbacks, but I rise to pick up the broken pieces and move on. If porcine beasts can’t fly, maybe a queer, brown diva can” that means starting over. It also shows the hopefulness of the narrator for the acceptance of the people in the LGBT.

CONNECTION

The essay tackles the discrimination that the author experienced as a young gay student. The topic discussed in the essay is still heavily relevant up to this day. the line” The prejudice against gay men Is even more magnified in the context of supposed deep religiosity” depicts the situation of today where gays are being frowned upon because of the religious belief of people who think they are superior to others.  It is sad to know that today a lot of people are still ignorant about homosexuality. In a viral video of a transgender woman being verbally assaulted by Aling Susan, we can see that she was being called “impyerniyo” for being a transgender woman and later Aling Susan started to attack her with a rock. We can see that it is just one of the many examples that the LGBT community faces in this society that cannot protect their rights. Another line that we can see the mistreatment toward the LGBT community is “gays were rounded up in Datu Piang after staging a gay beauty pageant and were beaten up for allegedly causing a tornado that destroyed more than twenty houses in the town”. Up to this date, there are still cases where a lot of people facing discrimination due to their sexual orientation. despite all of this we still hope that one day we can live in a society that people can be who they want to be without being judged.

                “There might be the pitfall sand setbacks, but I rise to pick up the broken pieces and move on”, this line reminds us that even though we may struggle in our life we have to be strong and move forward. In my life, I have experienced many things that sometimes I wish to give up. I have experienced what it is like not having a single peaceful moment in our home where every day all I can hear constant shouts and glass shattering. Every person has their difficulty in life but we have to remind ourselves that this is just part of our journey in life and we have to be strong to overcome those.

LITERARY ART