Matters of the Heart
Posted By: Primrose Buenaluz

What was so imminent to me while I was watching “American Adobo” was the rejection of Gerry’s homosexuality by his mother. In this day in age, people have evolved their morals and values into much more liberal than the past. Still there are those, specifically from the older generations that have a traditional mindset about relationships, love, and marriage. This topic of discussion is particularly important presently because of the House Bill #444 attempting to get approved in Hawaii’s legislature. HB #444 is the bill allowing civil unions or homosexual marriage in the state of Hawaii. Much concern for many is the negative effects that HB #444 will cause to future generations. Although I do understand where these people are coming from, I believe that relationships, love, and marriage are matters of the heart. Whether we are referring to homosexual or heterosexual couples, the heart is what controls those in love.
It was apparent to me that in “American Adobo” in order to be happy, love relationships need to exist. Marissa emphasized to Tere that even though Tere was wealthy, able to provide for herself, and had her own apartment, she lacked what truly makes people happy and fulfilled: a good man. Marissa’s insistence on this ideal of being ultimately happy made Tere begin to believe that this was the only way to be happy, even if it meant attempting to go back to the only man who ever showed any interest in her. In actuality, I feel that putting effort in searching for true love will only make things exhausting and tiresome instead of fulfilling any companionship needs. Letting fate meet you at its own time and place is really the way people should look at relationships; it worked for Tere. In the end, unbeknownst to her, the man that appeared earlier in the movie was the man that would end up being the love of her life. Tere was now content and happy with her life.
Gerry was very happy with his partner Chris, they were true soul mates. Although satisfied with his relationship, he knew that people would be uncomfortable revealing he was homosexual. Gerry’s mother, especially, was very rejecting of this lifestyle. His mother represents the traditional and conservative view. Since Gerry was her only son, she wanted the last name to be carried on when he was to have kids; she wanted to be a grandmother. She didn’t want to face the fact that she wouldn’t have those things she dreamed for her son. Some people are against change especially when they were raised amongst different values.
Those against allowing equality amongst everyone are the same people who are supposed to “love thy neighbor as themselves.” These people become hypocritical in a sense that their urgency against homosexuality is discriminatory even though they are supposed to be loving to all people as Jesus did. The assumption from many religious leaders have against HB #444 is that there will be an end to the future generation because of a lack of procreation. This is a very farfetched hypothesis because of the lack of intelligence to their thought process. If HB #444 does pass, it does not mean that heterosexual people will abandon their sexual orientations and concentrate their interests to their own gender.
Homosexual rights are a topic of great controversy that is brought up time and time again, especially the issue of gay marriage. When it comes to love, someone should not be hindered to express their love for someone publicly even if it is against societal norms. People had the power to set these norms and people still have the power to set new norms.
In Module 4, everyday ethics is broadly defined at moral aspects of day to day living. This definition highlights the importance of such ethics over global moral issues such as welfare and capital punishment. What everyday ethics evokes in a person is a genuine concern for the topic in mind because of the fact that it hits close to home. Ethics and morality involves and governs our relationships with others. We have the choice to mold our behaviors to societal views. The module goes about saying how we are to evaluate situations in an ethical perspective because many people want to live ethically. In the case of homosexuality, the steps in thinking about this issue are: the outcomes involved when taking the heart into consideration, thinking of consequences, keeping in mind that people have certain unalienable rights to be treated equally and fairly, and of course what brings the ultimate good for the community.
People have the choice to act ethical as they go through their daily routine. We need to set examples for others and rise up to be leaders in the community emphasizing equality and rights for all human beings. I think this is what the current generations have been doing. They have been more open to other views and perspectives that were looked down upon in the past. What “American Adobo” has shown was the acceptance of those apart of the younger generation to homosexuality. In Gerry’s case, his friends were very supportive of him when they found out he was homosexual. Even though everyone was striving to be happy with themselves, Gerry was the one in the end who was probably really truly happy because of the true love he found in Chris. The love between them was evident in their brief scenes together. Love is a matter of the heart and it makes people step out in faith and really trust each other to face any upcoming hardships. Loves tests the strength of relationships, whether it is through a sickness or accepting that some people will be disappointed in chosen lifestyles. I will end with a quote from the movie Moulin Rouge, “Love makes you do crazy things” because love it was makes a person truly happy.