From Out to My Husband's Lover to Destiny Rose

Hello.

It has been a long journey since Out. First there was My Husband's Lover on weekday primetime television. And now, Destiny Rose on the afternoon prime schedule.

Out to be Axed

Kahit mas mataas ang ratings ng bagong show ng GMA 7 na Out kesa katapat nito na Kontrobersyal (12% over 8% ito last Saturday), inihinto na ang airing nito ng Siete.

Okey sa ratings ang Out over Boy Abunda’s show pero hindi pumapasok ang mga commercials dito.

Ang message: this type of show (topics on third sex, sexual preferences) cannot attract advertisers.


Out segments


OUT ! :
Saturdays after after Idol Ko Si Kap.


Out ! will revolutionize your weekend late night TV viewing. Hosted by three new but unquestionably attractive and talented Out ! individuals, JM Cobarrubias, Jigs Mayuga, and Avi Siwa, Out! is a program that will for the first time address the concerns of gays, lesbians and bisexuals.

With segments like Queer Eye for Nanay and Tatay, Wow! Gay Philippines and Papa-razzi, Jigs, JM and Avi will make sure that Out! viewers are all set for an entertaining ride. The weekly Issues segment will discuss pressing issues affecting the community while gay and straight viewers can actively participate in the playful Gay-Dar text-in segment. But the touching Coming Out segment promises to be the highlight of the hour as it will surely move its viewers to tears with its stories of true to life coming out experiences.

Be sure to witness the start of something big. Find out why it’s good to be in but it’s definitely better to be Out !

Out of the Closet and Into a New Life

THE NIGHT JM Cobarrubias proclaimed to the whole world that he was gay via "Out!," GMA-7's new gay-oriented lifestyle show, his cellphone was clogged with so many text messages he had to press "Delete" every time a new message came in.

"Almost everyone in my phone book texted their congratulations," he recounts. "It was definitely the happiest day of my life."

His happiness was in sharp contrast to the obvious struggle he went through on-cam as he told his younger sister Dimples, tears streaming down his face, that he was "binabae" ("wrong choice of word," he now acknowledges) and that he was telling her now, after 25 long years of silence and denial, because he wanted her to be part of his new life as a professed gay man.

The sizable party crowd in Malate who watched the show on two giant screens set up on Orosa St. broke into wolf whistles and applause and gave Cobarrubias endless high-fives. He was now officially one of them-with one difference: He came out on nationwide TV. Bongga!

Ellen Degeneres moment

Before this, Cobarrubias was known to many only as a young reporter for "The Probe Team," Cheche Lazaro's award-winning magazine show that has moved to Channel 5 after many years with GMA-7.

"It was a matter of timing," says Cobarrubias of his Ellen Degeneres moment. "I was at that stage where I wanted to do something new. At 25, I felt I was missing out on being gay by hiding myself. I was ready for it and honestly wanted to be an example to others."

When he learned that a hosting slot for "Out!" was open after one of the original three hosts (Jigs Mayuga and Avi Siwa are the other two) backed out at the last minute, Cobarrubias took a deep breath, marched into the audition studio and did a spiel.

"Are you out?" he was asked.

"Not until today," he said, to delighted laughter from the show's staff. He was hired pronto.

Cobarrubias says if his family had reacted negatively to the show, he would have let them be and just gone on with his life. Fortunately, his parents, now separated and both working abroad, were proud and supportive.

From his father, Jesus Manuel Sr., who works as head chef of a hotel in the Seychelles Islands, Cobarrubias got this text message: "Watever it is, watever u r, ur my anak n i support u all d way. f ur hapi im hapi, ok? dont wori, anak, lav kita."

His mom May's reaction was even more pointed. "She told me to tape all the episodes of the show and send them to her," says Cobarrubias, laughing.

"A very close straight friend also told me, 'Okay lang yan, pare, mas okay na magpakatotoo tayo.' (It's better for us to be true to ourselves.)"

The uniformly positive reactions totally surprised Cobarrubias, who was expecting recriminations to fly. "I now realize how good it feels to be true to yourself," he says. "People will love you more if you're honest with them."

A long-closed door opens

It wasn't always this sunny. Cobarrubias was 18 when he first called himself "bakla (gay)." His best buddy had come to him one day, distraught and near-tears. He had a problem, the friend told him. While he was attracted to girls (he had a girlfriend that time), he was also, if not more so, attracted to guys. Could he be gay?

Cobarrubias felt as if a long-closed door had finally opened to him. "You know what? I feel the same way," he told his friend.

It was an admission long in coming. But while it was a welcome step out of the closet, it wasn't enough to erase the accumulated baggage that Cobarrubias had hoarded from years of guilt, denial and self-hatred over his sexuality.

"I grew up with the notion that being gay was a bad thing," he says. "Even when we were kids, when my siblings and I quarrel and they'd throw at me the words, 'Eh, ikaw, bakla,' I'd get hurt and keep quiet. Maybe that's why I never told them."

So while he eventually opened up to close friends about his orientation, Cobarrubias was consistently tight-lipped when it came to his family and workmates. He never let on, even more so when he became a regular face on TV as a "Probe" reporter.

"I wanted to protect my reputation," he says. "I couldn't go to places like Malate, nor answer the e-mail of my male fans lest I betray myself. I was so conscious of my mannerisms in front of the camera that even without pressure from the show itself, I would edit myself."

In short, he says, "I was discriminating against myself, at the expense of my social and emotional life."

Quintessential good boy

Self-sufficiency and discipline have always been the hallmarks of Cobarrubias' life. Born in Calamba, Laguna, he and his siblings-Dimples and older brother Kriz ("he's the quiet type, but an uncle told me he was so proud of me")-grew up with their mother after the family broke apart.

Cobarrubias was a working student for much of his college life, with stints at Jollibee and ACA Video. He was chronically underloaded, and had to extend his stay at UP Los Banos where he took up his BS Development Communications degree.

But he was the quintessential good boy: well-mannered, bright, hardworking, always with a medal or a citation to bring home to a beaming mom.

"It was in high school that I really bloomed," he recalls. "I was student council president in my senior year, school paper editor, CAT officer and choir leader." He did so well in school that his mother told him in jest that she was tired of going onstage to pin medals on him.

After college, Cobarrubias worked for seven months in a call center in Laguna, before he got hired by Probe Productions as a production assistant. In time, he would host the show's "Lonely Pinoy" series of travel sketches.

His Pinoy boy-next-door looks invariably invited queries of a girlfriend, but Cobarrubias was quick to deflect them by saying he was busy. His sister, though, was different. Whenever asked whether his brother was attached, Dimples said yes-"even if there's nobody," says Cobarrubias.
"I think she knew even then and was just protecting me."

Beyond stereotypes

His exclusive contract with GMA-7 meant that Cobarrubias had to leave Probe. But he's raring to move on and be more active in his new show.

"I'd like to produce stories for 'Out!' that would show the other side of gay men and women, not just the stereotypes," he says.

And now that he's in the open, the prospects of romance seem much more plausible-something he was never able to enjoy during his closeted years.

"I'm really happy that I have more friends now, and can really socialize. I've never had a lover, just a few dates. Dating is still at the bottom of my priorities," he says. "But I'm not in a rush and now at least, I can be friendly to people."

Cobarrubias says he is never a party guy, and would much rather spend an evening at home, arranging and re-arranging his CD collection. ("I'm obsessive-compulsive. Sometimes I alphabetize my Mariah Carey CDs, other times, I arrange them from her first album to the last.")

But that night he came out on national TV, he partied with newfound friends in Malate until 5 a.m. The first day of his new life deserved no less. [source]

The hosts of OUT!