THE BEST OF LADLAD (AN ANTHOLOGY OF PHILIPPINE GAY WRITING)

TWO DECADES AFTER THE PUBLICATION OF THE FIRST LADLAD: AN ANTHOLOGY OF GAY WRITING, WE OFFER THIS "BEST OF" EDITION, COMPRISED OF WHAT MY COEDITOR DANTON REMOTO AND I CONSIDER THE MOST ACCOMPLISHED AND ENDURING PIECES--POEMS, STORIES, ESSAYS, AND PLAYS--FROM THE SPANKING THREE-VOLUME LITERARY HARVEST OF THE LAST TWENTY YEARS. IT IS INTERESTING AND IMMMENSELY ELATING TO REVISIT THESE WORKS, AND TO READ THEM FROM THE PRIVILEGED PRISM OF THE PRSENT THAT THEY DOUBTLESS MADE POSSIBLE, AT LEAST IN PART: A PRSENT IN WHICH THE "BRAND" LADLAD HAS RECENTLY BECOM AN ACCREDITED POLITICAL PARTY, GAY INDEPENDENT CINEMA HAS SEEN AN UNPRECEDENTED EFFLORESCENCE, ALTERNATIVE "HOMOSEXUAL" REPRESENTATIONS HAVE PROLIFERATED ON TELEVISION AND THE NEW MEDIA, AND A VIABLE LESBIAN-GAY-TRANSGENDER MOVEMENT HAS VERITABLY TAKEN ROOT IN THE PHILIPPINES. THE BEST OF LADLAD ...IS BOTH DOCUMENT AND WITNESS, AND A SOURCE OF RARE AND ELOQUENT COURAGE; BRUISED AND DISABUSED, DELIRIOUS AND ENTHUSED, FILIPINO LGBT HAVE MADE IT THIS FAR. THE REST OF THE LUMINOUS JOURNEY BECKONS." --FROM THE INTRODUCTION BY J. NEIL C. GARCIA