Server overload and the gay Santacruzan

My server overloaded six times today and I had to reboot each and every time. I was wondering what was causing the spike in traffic until my editor sent a text message regarding the controversial pronouncements of Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales on gay santacruzans.

See, if you Google “gay santacruzan”, this blog lands on the top spot of the search results. If you Google “gay flores de mayo”, this blog is on the second place.

The photos were taken in 2004 and 2007, respectively, but they are still worth a gazillion words.

Gay santacruzan photos, circa 2004.

Gay flores de mayo photos, circa 2007.

As to Cardinal Rosales’ statement, here’s my response: The dignity and solemnity of the Santacruzan has been destroyed long ago even before gays decided they could parade as sagalas. The Department of Tourism itself has prostituted the occasion by commercializing and exploiting it with the able assistance of high-profile couturiers.

Is it more acceptable if the sagalas are starlets wearing expensive designer gowns? Is it more respectable if society matrons serve as emperatriz? Is the dignity and solemnity of the occasion retained if people participate and watch not for any spiritual or religious reason but just to ogle at celebrities?

Let’s go even one step farther. Haven’t Santacruzans become a venue where mothers pimp their daughters, putting them on display, some very young girls, in the hope that their beauty would be talked about and they would get discovered by some talent agent or that they would catch the fancy of some rich boy who happens to be watching?

Oh, come on. How come no howls were raised when all that transformation was taking place?

Truth is, the move of the gay community to become part of the annual Santacruzan festivities is only a reflection of one glaring truth: Many Catholic feasts, including town fiestas, have lost their real meaning. The gay community did not invent it; they gay community did not spearhead it.

If the Catholic population sees the gays’ participation in Santacruzans as a disgrace to the occasion, the gay Santacruzans in Marikina wouldn’t be jampacked. But, goodness gracious, I was there in 2004 and 2007 and the crowds were as thick as the ones on Good Friday processions. These events were much-awaited and crowds lined the streets hours before the Santacruzan began.

If schedule permits, I’ll go again this year and take even more photos.