Bakla Ako, May Reklamo?

Oh we love discounts! Wherever we go and whatever we buy, we try as much as we can to get something off - the price that is, and not our clothes. Be it in the supermarket, the palengke, the ukay-ukay store or even the neighborhood fishball vendor, we ask for discounts!

And in this age of plastics (we mean the cards and not people), many stores and establishments have issued their own versions of discount cards and membership cards. And we have tons of them too! Supermarkets, department stores and appliance stores have the SM Advantage Card, Rustan’s Card, Abenson/WalterMart Plus Card; coffee shops have the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Swirl Card and Figaro Coffee Club Card; Health shops like HBC have their own versions too; restaurants have the (soon-to-be-if-not-yet discontinued) The Bistro Group Gold Card and the Chateau 1771 Group’s Gourmand Card; Karaokes like RedBox have them; even Globe’s GenTxt is a discount card! We’re not sure if such a thing as a gay discount card exists here in the Philippines, but don’t you think that would be such a great idea?

Well, for now, we can only dream. But if you really wanna be a proud owner and user of a gay discount card, why not go to where the flavor is? No, not Marlboro country. One country has recently issued discount cards specifically targeted at gay tourists. So come, let’s show “just a little touch of star quality” in the land of hot men (next to Brazil, perhaps), the land of Evita! There, we’ll sing lines from one of our favorite songs from Evita:

Hello, Buenos Aires
Get this, just look at me dressed up, somewhere to go
We’ll put on a show

And a show we will put on indeed, thanks to Discount Cards issued to gay tourists by the city of Buenos Aires:

Card-holders can use the card at participating restaurants, hotels, medical emergency centres and even lawyers’ offices.

The cards are released as Buenos Aires enjoys an unparalleled influx of gay tourists, now constituting 10 to 15 percent of visitors to the city.

Although predominantly Catholic, Argentina actually has laws that prohibit the discrimination of any person on the basis of sexuality. And this move to welcome with open arms (not necessarily with open legs too) gay travelers is something that should be lauded and imitated. Now this reminds us about the Philippines’ 13th Congress HB634, otherwise known as the Anti-Discrimination Bill. I wonder what will happen to that bill now that a new Congress is in session (and that Representative Abante was reelected).

These discount cards can be used at participating restauarants, bars, hotels, and other partner establishments , and medical emergency centers and even lawyer’s offices, to avail discounts!

Hmm.. This so wants us to start packing and head for Argentina singing,

What’s new Buenos Aires?
I’m new, I wanna say I’m just a little stuck on you
You’ll be on me too

I get out here, Buenos Aires
Stand back, you oughta know whatcha gonna get in me
Just a little touch of star quality

Fill me up with your heat, with your noise
With your dirt, overdo me
Let me dance to your beat, make it loud
Let it hurt, run it through me.
Don’t hold back, you are certain to impress
Tell the driver this is where I’m staying

link: news source

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