Post)Colonial Medicalization of the Filipino Homosexual (1916-1976
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Sakít o Salà?: The (Post)Colonial Medicalization of the Filipino Homosexual (1916-1976) By Kiel Ramos Suarez To be submitted to Central European University Department of Gender Studies, Department of History In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Gender Studies with Specialization in Women’s and Gender History Supervisor: Professor Francisca de Haan, Ph.D. Secondary Reader: Christine Klapeer, Ph.D. CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2017 Abstract This thesis deals with the history of how native gender variance and same-sexual relations became discursively constructed as Western medicalized homosexuality in the Philippines. Roman Catholicism and Western medicine, two lasting legacies of Spanish and American colonial regimes, worked together in the regulation and reformation of native sexual bodies in the Philippines. While previous scholarship has surmised that the medicalization of homosexuality occurred during U.S. imperial rule, no archival research has been done to explore how and when ―homosexuality‖ became constructed as a disease in the Philippines. This thesis analyzes two of the earliest scientific and medical studies on homosexuality in the Philippines in the 1960s. Using the three intersecting historiographical fields of Filipino (post)colonial medicine, gender and sexuality in Europe and in the colonies, and Filipino LGBTQ+ studies, this thesis, firstly, claims that the process of translating indigenous terms for gender-crossing to Western/Anglo-American constructs like ―homosexuality,‖ ―lesbianism,‖ and ―transvestism,‖ has led to the medicalization of Filipino concepts of gender variance and same-sexual relations. Secondly, this thesis suggests that homosexuality became constructed as a pathological condition, not during the U.S. imperial rule per se, but during the post-1946/post-Independence era. Homosexuality, as an illness, was seen as manifesting itself on the body and in the mind. CEU eTD Collection i Declaration of Original Research and Word Count I hereby declare that this thesis is the result of original research; it contains no materials accepted for any other degree in any other institution and no materials previously written and/or published by another person, except where appropriate acknowledgment is made in the form of bibliographical reference. I further declare that the following word count for this thesis are accurate: Body of thesis (all chapters excluding notes, references, appendices, etc.): 33,321 words Entire manuscript: 36,509 words Signed by: Kiel Ramos Suarez CEU eTD Collection ii Acknowledgements I thank Professors Tom Laqueur and Emese Lafferton, for their guidance when I was doing an earlier version of this work in the spring of 2016 in Budapest. I also thank Professors Warwick Anderson, Julius Bautista, Mina Roces, Mr. Telly Paradela, and Ms. Diana Padilla, who all patiently responded to my consultation requests through email. I thank Professors Merce Planta, Eric Manalastas, Neil Garcia and Martin Manalansan IV, for giving me an opportunity to consult with them when I was in Manila in July 2016. I also thank Professors Thomas Fröschl and Felix Bergmeister, for my consultations with them at the University of Vienna. I express my gratitude to the staff members and archivists of the American Historical Collection at the Ateneo de Manila University; the National Center for Mental Health Library; the National Library of the Philippines; the University of the Philippines-Diliman Main Library; the Dr. F.B. Herrera Jr., Medical Library at the University of the Philippines-Manila College of Medicine; and the University of Santo Tomas Miguel de Benavides Library. I express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Francisca de Haan, for her patience in reading my research journal entries; for our conversations in Skype in whichever part of the world we were; and for her invaluable pieces of advice that guided me throughout this thesis-writing journey. I thank (Professor) Christine Klapeer, my secondary supervisor, for her guidance, insights, and intellectually stimulating questions. Ultimately, I thank my family and friends for their love and support since day one. CEU eTD Collection iii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iii 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Methodology and Sources ................................................................................................ 4 1.2. Terminology ................................................................................................................... 11 1.3. Scope and Limitations of the Study ............................................................................... 14 1.4. Structure of the Thesis.................................................................................................... 16 2. Historical Background: Medicine, Gender, Sexuality, and Empire in the Colonial and Post- Independence Philippines (900 C.E. - 2016) ................................................................................ 17 2.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 17 2.2. General Outline of Philippine History (900 C.E. - 2016) .............................................. 18 2.3. The Babaylan/Katalonan: The Ancient Filipino Medico-Spiritual Leader ................... 21 2.4. Spanish Colonialism and the Reformation of Native Sexual Bodies (1565-1898) ........ 24 2.5. U.S. Imperial Rule and the Colonial Medicalization of Sexuality in the Philippines (1902-1946) ............................................................................................................................... 27 2.6. Science, Medicine, and Homosexuality in the Post-Independence Philippines ............. 31 2.7. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 36 3. Historiography of Filipino Colonial Medicine, Gender, and Homosexuality ....................... 39 3.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 39 3.2. (Post)Colonial Medicine in the Philippines ................................................................... 40 3.3. Science, Medicine, Homosexuality, and Empire ........................................................... 46 3.3.1 The Medicalization of Homosexuality in the West ................................................ 46 3.3.2. The Medicalization of Homosexuality in the Colonies .......................................... 49 3.3. Science, Medicine, and Homosexuality in the Philippines ............................................ 53 3.3.1. The Bakla/Homosexual Dynamic ........................................................................... 57 3.3.2. The Tomboy/Homosexual Construct ...................................................................... 59 CEU eTD Collection 3.4. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 60 4. Medicalizing Homosexuality in the Post-Independence Philippines: Descriptions and Causes (1965-1968) ...................................................................................................................... 62 4.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 62 iv 4.2. The Scientific and Medical Studies on Homosexuality in the Philippines: The Works of Rosario Aquino and Donn V. Hart (1965-1968) ....................................................................... 64 4.3. Medicalizing Postcolonial Sexual Bodies in the Philippines ......................................... 68 4.4. The Scientific ―Causes‖ of Homosexuality in the Post-Independence Philippines ....... 79 4.5. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 84 5. Homosexuality, Mental Disorder, and Pathological Social Behavior in the Philippines (1965-)........................................................................................................................................... 87 5.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 87 5.2. Homosexuality and Mental Disorders ............................................................................ 89 5.3. Homosexuality and Pathological Social Behavior ......................................................... 92 5.4. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 94 6. Conclusions and Recommendations ......................................................................................... 96 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 101 Appendix ..................................................................................................................................... 108