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These BPO gay men, mostly call-centre agents, constitute a sizeable proportion of the market for gay bars and restaurants. The last decade has seen exponential growth of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines, 5 and gay men constitute a significant percentage of the workforce in this burgeoning service industry. Different bars attract customers from different socioeconomic backgrounds, and gay bars in Manila are class-stratified, with some catering to upper class and others to lower middle class and working class gay men. New Generation Gays, New Gay Urban SpacesĪnother factor to consider in the rise and fall of Malate as a gay space is the changing demographics of men who frequent gay bars. Planet Romeo (PR): Gay dating site in the Philippines Online cruising for partners is an ideal and cost-efficient choice and without doubt it has impacted detrimentally on the earnings of gay bars, many of which have subsequently gone out of business. Based on information on the site’s welcome page, Philippine members who are online at any one time constitute 4% to 5% of Planet Romeo’s entire online worldwide population.
By February 2011, Planet Romeo already had around 97,000 members from the Philippines.
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The most subscribed free mobile phone app and gay dating site in the Philippines is perhaps Planet Romeo (PR). In this context, virtual communications technologies have become a viable solution to the problems posed by the dangers of physical spaces and the self-acceptance issues haunting non-scene gays. However, even if a gay bar was a safe choice for socialising, there were nonetheless many Filipino gay men who refused to go to these venues for fear of being “outed” or identified as gay. Gay bars were somewhat safer places to meet other gay men as, to my knowledge, they were very rarely raided by the police. No bathhouse in the Philippines has been exempt from police raids. Cinemas and bathhouses were subjected to repeated raids by the police, and men cruising in the streets could be charged with vagrancy. However, all these venues entailed risks. Before the emergence of social networking sites, cheap cinemas, public parks, and bathhouses were among the favourite places where gay men in Manila sought out partners. Dating sites and apps like Planet Romeo and Grindr have eaten up the cruising market and, in the Philippines, they have provided gays with a safer way to find partners. Modern communications technologies have changed the sexual cruising rituals of gay men across the planet. Technology and Cruising in Real and Virtual Worlds 4 Post-Pride March 2010 Party (White Party) on the Corner of Nakpil and Orosa Streets in Malate Photo by DENNIS CORTEZA What has led to the demise of gay Malate? Here I discuss several interconnected issues that may shed light on the phenomenon, namely, technology, urban location, economics, and political consciousness. However, now all the gay establishments along the Orosa-Nakpil intersection, save for one, the Che’lu Bar, are gone. Orosa Street, which intersected with Nakpil, also came to life and saw the opening of many bars, restaurants, and shops. 3 One of the first gay venues along Nakpil Street was Blue Café, which showcased drag performances on Wednesday nights. In the early to mid-1990s, the intersection of Adriatico and Nakpil streets in Malate transformed into a busy entertainment district catering to both gays and straights. However, it was only in the 1990s that a politically conscious gay and lesbian movement thrived in the country, and the city that witnessed all these milestones in Philippine Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) history was Manila. Popular discourses on homosexuality began appearing, 1 explorations of homosexual life formed themes in Philippine films, and gay bars 2 like Coco Banana boomed in the Malate area. Philippine gay culture blossomed in the 1970s during the years of the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship. Several interlocking factors have brought about the demise of Malate as a gay space and this paper is a modest attempt to provide notes on this phenomenon. However, a quick walk along the now quiet streets is all one needs to confirm the fact that gay Malate is dead. The Malate district of Metropolitan Manila was the gay capital of the city, indeed of the entire archipelagic Philippines, from the 1970s until the early part of this century.