Is Isagani A. Cruz Homophobic?

If there's one thing I learned from journalism (or as least media's depiciton of journalists like J. Jonah Jameson and The Daily Show), one way to avoid libel charges is to phrase your would-be controversial statements in the form of a question.

Isagani A. Cruz, Former Philippine Supreme Court Associate Justice, a name so famous he needs to use his middle initial to distinguish him from Isagani R. and Isagani plain, wrote this in his column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (color scheme and emphasis mine):

"Now homosexuals are everywhere, coming at first in timorous and eventually alarming and audacious number..."

"And the schools are now fertile ground for the gay invasion... Now many of its pupils are gay, and I don’t mean happy. I suppose they have been influenced by such shows as “Brokeback Mountain,” our own “Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros”..., “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” and that talk program of Ellen Degeneres, an admitted lesbian."

"Is our population getting to be predominantly pansy? Must we allow homosexuality to march unobstructed until we are converted into a nation of sexless persons without the virility of males and the grace of females but only an insipid mix of these diluted virtues? Let us be warned against the gay population, which is per se a compromise between the strong and the weak and therefore only somewhat and not the absolute of either of the two qualities. Be alert lest the Philippine flag be made of delicate lace and adorned with embroidered frills."

Holy crap, there are just so many things wrong with this piece. Want proof? Replace the words gay/homosexual with, I dunno, black or Muslim to see how bigoted it sounds.

The man seems to be coming from the same school of thought that says watching movies or tv programs depicting either sex or violence will make you sexually active or violent. I have yet to hear of any incident or study that says repeated viewings of Queer Eye or Ellen would eventually change a youth's sexual orientation. Teach you better manners or grooming tips, maybe. Better people skills, maybe.

"Must we allow homosexuality to march unobstructed?" Do you think they're organzing formally somewhere in the city, sir, hatching up schemes to wreak havok on the heterosexual community? Lightning gay rallies, perhaps?

If anything, we should be warned of not against the gay population, but against people like Isagani A. Cruz who seem to view gays as some kind of threat to humanity.