 Miss Philippines is coming out of the closet. Yeah, this is going viral right now. Michelle Marquez won Miss Universe Philippines. And after winning the title, she officially announced that her sexual orientation is bisexual. She showed photos from her younger years where she was a tomboy. And this generated a lot of internet comments. But it actually comes on the heels of a viral McDonald's commercial in the Philippines that features a LGBT lesbian couple. So this is just very interesting because Asia Andrew, traditionally the Philippines is very Catholic, but Asia in general is very, can be very conservative or closed off when it comes to this issue, right? Yeah, so we're gonna dive into the comments section. Please hit that like button, check out other episodes of the Hot Pop Boys. First of all, I think it is news because a lot of like the high level pageant winners who are women, they don't usually talk about their sexual orientation. So for her to come out and declare that she is actually bisexual, of course her being a pageant winner and probably having the heart and the eyes of many, many men out there, it is a bigger deal and it is making a statement. Well, actually pageants Andrew are a bigger deal in the Philippines even than they are in America. It's just like part of their culture that I guess occupies a pretty high status. So anyway, let's get into the comments section. Of course, Andrew, you got the bro-wish comments from the internet where people were like really happy about this, right? Dude, I'm happy she's bisexual. Now in my mind, I can imagine her with her girlfriend or some, you know, obviously the classic bro comment. Right. Somebody said, why share everything in 2023? This is more of a conservative comment, maybe a moderate conservative comment. I mean, you hear this a lot too for a lot of reasons, right? I definitely don't think, like, you know, we address a lot of TikTokers making videos that are stupid and embarrassing and I think not everything needs to be shared. I guess something like this, it depends on obviously the statement she's trying to make and she felt like she could make an impact and help push some of the movement to be more accepting of LGBT by her even saying bisexual, which she didn't even say that she's lesbian. She just said she's bisexual, which is like one step in between, right? Right. And I guess from my research, there is a cultural movement brewing at least in the pop cultural society of the Philippines right now, whether or not the governmental laws and things, that's actually a whole nother compartmentalized sector. Somebody said bisexual women are by far the most accepted type of LGBTIQ. I don't know if other straight guys count them as their own identity, but rather women who sure know how to party. Yeah, this is not a debate that I have a strong stance on, but I think that's a pretty funny comment to be honest. Somebody said that lesbians are still more accepted because they are perceived to be masculinity, whereas femininity is not allowed by like the opposite male gender. Yeah, you know what's interesting is that I don't know how being LGBT was being viewed in the Philippines, but I know being in America amongst Filipino-Americans, everybody was very accepting. I mean, we grew up around a lot of Filipinos and we always knew that there was LGBT Filipinos. Even in our town growing up. Yeah, we just in our school, like of our friend group of our larger circle, we definitely all had them. So I guess it always felt like it was very accepting amongst the families here. So I guess to hear that it was not very well accepted in the Philippines, which I haven't spent a lot of time. We only went for a short trip one time. I guess that was a little bit surprising to me. Well, I guess people are saying that it's all in the details. Like a much more tomboy girl is accepted, but maybe not a feminine man or a feminine man is accepted, but not a strong man who happens to be LGBT. Like I said, guys. I don't know, but yes, that's interesting. Somebody said, this is why she won. They knew this before the outcome. It's all fixed and it's designed to change society. The classic. Anytime anybody wins anything, it's fixed. Maybe, but I don't know. No, I mean, I think that anybody like has a movement to push like a certain thing that's going on in the culture. It's possible, but it doesn't mean that it's wrong, right? People want to make statements just like the Oscars and all the Asians winning at the Oscars. Asians have been shut out for so long. Yeah, I mean, her statement was not crazy. She didn't tell everybody, all your kids should be this. You know, she was just like, I'm this and I'm proud. Right. Somebody said, I went to the Philippines in 1979. And even back then there were plenty of tomboy's holding hands with more feminine looking girls. It was far more open at that time than the USA society was. So it's really interesting, David. You know, obviously we've been to Hong Kong and we've been around Asia and in Hong Kong, especially, it seems like everybody's very accepting of like tomboy specifically lesbian couples, right? And I see them holding hands all the time. No one bats an eye. However, there might not be a mainstream discussion about it. It might be one of those things that just happens and people are just like, oh yeah, sure. But they don't like come up with all these laws and shows and discussions and like trying to make these different things about it. So I think that's the struggle that America is having right now versus Asia. Asia's just like, hey, just kind of be your thing. But just like, just don't make it a thing, you know? Right, right. It's very, very different. It's very difficult to compare to the almost contentiousness lobbing shots back and forth. Yeah, America. That's the nature of the West. Hey, David, America likes a good war. Yeah. Somebody said that the Philippines had always had a very fluid and tolerant view towards gender and sexuality, specifically pre-colonial, pre-Catholicism. There was things like the Baba Ayalan, which is an ancient, non-barren, binary shaman. I will pop up a photo of this. I did some research about it. Somebody said, I thought the Philippines was a very conservative Catholic country. And somebody said, so are Spain, Mexico, and Italy. But at this point in 2023, it doesn't mean much. Right, right, right. So Andrew, let's move on to the McDonald's commercial, which kind of shows that there's a whole movement right behind the whole LGBT thing going on in the Philippines. Right. Let's air it. Hi, it's on cheeseburger, please. With large fries and drinks, na buba? A la carte lang. Thank you. Ma'am, dessert you po. Baca matunau. Yeah, as you guys can see, the commercial, you know, pretty cute, actually very wholesome. No, I thought it was a good commercial overall. But also, do they really serve people on skateboards through the drive-through? Like, I don't know, do they do that in the Philippines? Because I know they would not serve people on skateboards in America. She was wearing a helmet, though, to indicate the safety standards. Somebody said, what are they going to do when McDonald's finally moves to robot servers? This type of interaction won't even be available anymore. Well, it could be human to machine now. So this opened up a lot of discussions, Andrew, because McDonald's is doing it. Somebody said, as a queer person, I don't care if this is pandering for our dollars or not. We enjoy and we need this type of representation. Hey, who doesn't enjoy a little bit of pandering? Asians have been pandered to, in many respects, in the past, you know, five, six, seven years. So, you know, can pander to different groups. This other woman, who I believe is white, said, Americans are not the only ones allowed to have a cultural opinion moment or struggles. This might be considered rainbow capitalism in the US, but for countries still pushing for equality, this actually means a lot. So rather than just chasing dollars, Andrew, this could be society changing before our eyes in a foreign country. Yeah, I think that there's a good argument to say, like, hey, this isn't, like, just because the Philippines did it this way, it doesn't mean that it's for the same reasons that America would make this commercial. Right, if this commercial was in America, people would definitely question the intentions. This commercial probably has a larger impact culturally in the Philippines, because they're at a different place. Their societal pulleys, levers, and mechanisms are different because as much as there is American influence in the Philippines, it is a fundamentally different society in a whole nother part of the world. Somebody said that Max's chicken from the Philippines actually had a subtle commercial addressing these pro-LGBT themes of acceptance and the family, the traditional family with the kids a few years back as well. Yeah, and there's also this pretty viral perfume commercial over in the Philippines that has to do with high schoolers and stuff like that. And it was like, basically, to spoil it, the father thinks that his son actually has a girlfriend, but the son is wearing perfume for actually a guy at school, but then later the father accepts his son as his son. Yeah, which is cool. It was a heartwarming commercial. It's very interesting in the countries that are native English speakers, Andrews, such as the Philippines and India. India recently had a really viral Starbucks campaign featuring somebody who was a trans woman who was the son of, I'm sorry, the daughter of traditional parents and how they were dealing with it, but showing the acceptance, you know? So it goes to show you that the English-speaking countries for sure are almost adopting perhaps some things from the West as well. But I will also say this, David, I don't know if those commercials are being ran a lot for like basic television audience, right? They might be more on the internet, more on web, more on premium web services, more on streaming services, more on cable services, where the audience might not just be like- Or be more global. Be more- Be more international, more educated. More for a global audience, let's be honest, yeah. Anyway, let's get to our takeaways, Andrew. I think it's really cool to see culture change. People become more accepting of other identities. Everybody deserves to live a happy life, especially in societies that 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago were not as accepting. But I do think that the way this sort of movement works in Asia is different. They're probably not gonna sign as many laws in a place. However, they will accept it on a more day-to-day basis more and more every day. Yeah, I mean, I don't think that either of these places are violent to the regular citizen as much. And I do think that their probably level of hate crime probably is lower, just because they're maybe not as violent as countries, at least in that manner. They're just kind of docile in regards to seeing other people on the street in general. Yeah, and I think America's stubbornness and unwillingness to change a lot of their laws and to accept certain things does come from the arrogance and the achievements of America, where Americans are pretty much like, hey man, listen, we had a pretty good, elite, powerful country for all these decades without this thing. And so now you're trying to shove this diversity down my throat and I just associate it with the decline of America. Right, right, right. You're saying that there are, some people or some faction in America is sort of conflating social progressiveness with economic decline or structural decline or whatever. Yeah, I mean, America likes a good war. They like, America is an aggressive country man. They like a good joust. They really do. I mean, and we got all types of wars right now. Meat eaters versus vegans, et cetera. This versus that. The race wars of America and the gender wars of America. And by the way, I'm not saying that it's not an issue in Asia, but I just definitely don't view it with the same hypercharged, you know, lobbing shots back and forth thing. Right, right, right. But yeah, anyways, you guys, let me know in the comments down below, guys, what you think about this. Anybody from the Philippines, please, if you have any insight or can shed some light on this or you wanna share your own personal comment and thoughts on this, please let us know because, yeah, I mean, there's a movement in the Philippines and all over the world, it is Pride Month, by the way. So everybody, please hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the Hop Hop Boys and until next time, we out. Peace.