INAMIN ni Raymond Gutierrez, kapatid nina Ruffa at kakambal ni Richard na siya ay proud member ng LGBTQIA+ community. Ginawa ni Raymond ang pagka-come out sa tunay niyang kasarian sa interview ng isang entertainment magazine.
Ani Raymond, “I’m doing this now just because I’ve had so many learnings during the pandemic that maybe not a lot of—maybe a lot of people are going through similar situations as me. I wanna empower those people. I wanna tell them that, ‘You’re not alone. I was going through the same things.’”
Inamin din niya nahirapan siyang itago ang pagiging gay habang siya ay lumalaki lalo pa’t nasa isang kilalang showbiz clan sila.
“Growing up, it was hard for me to even acknowledge even who I am. Like, what is this? I had my brother who was so similar to me but so different in so many ways. But he never had to explain his sexuality, so why should I? And that was my thinking growing up. But then entering show business at 19—well, I was a kid—but going back again to show business at 19 to be a TV host, that’s when it really hit me that, ‘Wow, being gay is really not accepted in a lot of these communities,’” kuwento pa niya.
Dugtong ni Raymond, “Back then, being the new person on TV, I was bullied by a lot of the older people in the studios. Being gay now is not the same as being gay back then.
“10 years ago, it was totally different. You feel like a mutant? You walk in to backstage and people will say, ‘Ah, ‘di ba ‘yun ‘yung baklang kapatid ni Richard?’ Like, I can literally hear them. And because of those moments where people really wanted to put me in a corner and really label me and kind of diminish my skills and diminish what I can bring to the table because of my sexual preference (that I didn’t even realize—I didn’t even know at that time?) I was still going through so many emotions at that time that I had no idea. Like, ‘Can I go through this first before you label me anything?’”
Ipinagmalaki rin ng kakambal ni Richard na malakas ang kanyang support system kaya hindi siya natakot amining bading siya.
“As I grew older and as I matured, I realized the best thing that you can really offer your family is to be yourself. So drop the cloak, drop the act; just be yourself. And again, I’m lucky just because my family wants nothing but the best for me.
“They always just want me to be happy. We’ve always been very close and at the same time, I had friends that are like family to me. My chosen family who made it much easier to kind of realize that it’s never too late to love yourself, it’s never too late to acknowledge those feelings, and face your fears,” sabi pa niya.
