I was asking my dormmate if he could lend me his old, trusty dictionary when all of a sudden he blurted out, "Andiyan lang sa keme yung kemeru, pakikuha na lang diyan kuya." I tried to look out for it on his table, underneath, inside its drawer, but no damn dictionary whatsoever could be found. " Aynako dead ka na di mo pa nasense! Ayan lang oh, sabi ko nasa keme mo na e, cheka!" At last I got it. He was referring to his laundry basket. Another guy friend of him entered the room and like a fast-talking Marsian he asked, " Hoy penge naman ng kemeru boom-boom. Bat si Ate binigyan mo ng keme, ako hindi. Cheka!"

Then it became clear to me. All objects around them, they refer to "keme"/"kemeru"/"kemeru boom-boom". And they end their statements with an immediate outburst that is "cheka!". These are gays, and you should expect to hear them chattering unusual words, while wittingly or unwittingly using their unique way of conversing to almost everyone they get along. I got used to people blabbering gay lingos, as many of my classmates in UP are either gays, or influenced by gays. Some kikay girls even speak gays or are acting as if they are among the gays themselves. So many of them in school- classroom, dorm, library, streets, church. You can hear them almost everywhere. It's being spoken by your seatmate, closest friends, orgmates, guards, xerox attendants, and professors. And believe it or not, at least in UP, not only gays convey their message through a unique structure of language, for even the so-called straight ones are into it.

Some are annoyed by the proliferation of its usage, but surely the trend is here to stay. It is also not unusual to have the so-called "chuva language" to spread like a wild fire because it only proves that our own native language is evolving. Say what? Yes, our very own Filipino language. The lingua franca of Rizal, Ninoy and Keanna Reeves.

It is true that gays (I don't want to coin them as those belonging to the third sex, because I believe they should be treated equal to both male and female gender. And what's the importance of recognizing the first or second sex in the world by the way?) oftenly formulate their own sets of languages, examples are those stated above. There was a theory that gays do make their conversations "private" from people who are either "straight" or "not part of their group". That way, they make ignoramuses out of the group who do not speak the same manner gays do. Moreover, when they found out that their "private" language is being used by individuals outside their group, they start to formulate other words aside from the old word they used to have. For example, chika which means "tsismis" or "gossip" evolved and was replaced by chismax, cheez whiz, and so on. That's why most of the time, we find it hard to understand what they're saying because they intentionally want people outside their bounds not to intrude in their "private" conversations. And before we know what "chuva language" they turned on, they already had altered it.

The social contour of this phenomenon is normal. Guys use pare, tol, brod when speaking to a male friend. Women alike, greet their amigas, sister or kumare . A group consisting of male members could refer to their gonads as "si Junior" or "Manoy", whilst a gay writer could call a penis nota, batuta, patotot , etc. with so much flexibility in the use of his vocabulary. Some of us know a number of military terminologies such as mistah, platoon, neophyte and others, and used them in the past. As one TV ad before showed, most Filipinos refer to commodities such as toothpaste based on its brand name. Colgate, it is. Kodak for taking pictures, Crayola for crayons and Gasul for LPG. But we don't really mind them. Not in the case of the "chuva language". I once heard my dormmate pointing to an erection as jingaling . But would a straight male say that his kumpare has a jingaling, even if he heard of that word before? I guess no. The same old male culture will prevail over, and prevent him from saying it. But when he did, oh that would be a big-big-deal. Turn-off. You're allowed to say Xerox to a photocopier but anything else is a softness in the head. Peers would doubt your sexuality, force you to come out, or plant a mariposa butterfly that could freak you out and tell the world that you are gay. But hey, why in the first place would you stare at an erecting "Manoy" dude? Aha!

Going back to the idea that proliferation of gay lingo's usage in our daily lives proves that the Filipino language is a dynamic, evolving language, the trend is evident as it is now crossing different social classes as well as gender. My former boss for instance, I heard speaking to his subordinate, "Keri na ba iyong voucher?". The word "keri" which came from the word "carry" used to be a gay lingo, but is now an accepted word by most Filipinos, which means "okay" or "fine". My professor reminded the class then, " 'Wag ninyong sabihing kaya ninyong i-chorva 'yung exam ." Most of the students studied diligently days before the scheduled test, never cheated and passed it. They knew what he meant.

It is not to say that gay terms are okay, for it is obviously confusing and it might even caused some disagreements as to the context of a statement having them. But it is not also right to claim that they are not. As a matter of fact, they might not be okay for some groups, but in the development of the Filipino language the usage of "chuva language" does help. In due time, they would become sort-of colloquials in the Filipino dictionary, or even new breed of orginal terms. Again, the trend is normal. Even the American English language is now flooded with absurd terms such as booty, humps, tralala and many more. Cool isn't it dude?

So the next time you're asked by your partner if you're accepting the commitment, answer him or her, "keri" . And when your dad's looking for his reading glasses, tell him that it is somewhere in the "kemeru-boom-boom". And if a doctor asks which part of your body is tormenting you, point to that "chorva".

Chenelyn!

###

(Disclaimer : He is by no means an advocate of the gay language. Neither he is gay nor speaking the language of gays. This piece aims to expose the nature of the gay lingo trend as experienced by many of us)

|