The Golden Gays of Manila sing for their supper

Al Enriquez throws his used street clothes like dead skin and develops a voguish and flashing air once he slips into a gauzy dress and a wig of tight blonde curls.

He is 82 years old and is one of the stars in a beauty pageant for elderly and poor gay men who is about to start in a banquet hall on a rundown Manila street.

But it's not a noisy, dredging show for tourists They see themselves as Golden Gays and they think so.

"When I'm dressed like that, I feel ecstatic and I feel that I have no sadness in me," Enriquez told AFP. "I'm gay and I'm not embarrassed to be gay."

The Philippines has a reputation for openness to homosexuality, but experts say that legal protections are lacking and that C & # 's That's why the Golden Gays have recruited corporate and private sponsors who pay for their members to receive a decent meal and a few days of groceries after contests that they hold at least once.

"The show is just our way of saying thank you," says Ramon Busa, the 68-year-old group's organizer, known as Monique de la Rue once in heels and make-up.

"My mother was angry"

Most of the 48 members are in their 60s and are among the millions of Filipinos who survive on less than $ 5 a day.

In real life, they are dishwashers, street peddlers or scavengers, but for the afternoon the door will be closed to reality

Before the show, the room air smell the scent and the fried food that will be served for lunch. The men put their dresses back in place and scrutinize themselves in pocket mirrors.

The show begins with music pulled at the distorted volume of the bruised speakers while the 18 performers slide onto the podium and hit the poses.

The shows have been going on for years, but the roots of the Golden Gays are even deeper.

In the mid-1970s, they began in the urban sprawl of Manila. for the Golden Gays – a home where homosexual homosexuals or poor elderly gays could spend the night.

However, the house belonged to their founder, activist and chronicler Justo Justo, and when he died in 2012, his family expelled the group in a few days.

This failure did not break the group, which serves as a family that many of its members do not have.

Federico Ramasamy, a long-time Golden Gay, was rejected by his parents once they learned his sexuality. He made his way to Manila and never looked back.

"I was born in the late 1950s, so family values ​​were very high," he said. "My mother was very, very angry at me when she learned that I was gay, she sent me away."

"Hand to mouth"

The Golden Gays became his family and a real life refuge in which he earns about two dollars a day for 15 hours

"But I feel good, especially when it comes to what 's going on. Now is the Golden Gays, we are all coming together, "said Ramasamy, 60, after the contest.

The age and precarious life of the Golden Gays means that the group has lost more than a few members to death. The most recent loss is that of George Fernandez, 71, who died in June of a blood infection.

Anthropologist Michael Tan says that life is a struggle for elderly Filipinos because social safety nets are rather weak. "But it's worse for gay men because of their increased vulnerability: not having children to turn to – even if many support their nephews and nieces or have adopted children – and are New Vulnerable to Violence "He says:

The Catholic Church, which has a majority of the nation's 105 million believers, remains a major force in Filipino society and has resisted laws against discrimination, adds -t it.

Busa, the organizer of the Golden Gays, raises his arms to the challenges of life and says that what the group really needs is a new permanent home – preferably paid by a generous benefactor.

With or without his own home, the Golden Gays wi He will survive, he says.

"It's how we live – hand in hand, but we have to maintain our balance, our will to live," said Busa.

"It's really hard but there's no choice."