The Philippine literature in English was started and made possible by the United States, at the end of the 19th century and establish a government based on democracy. By 1901, public education had been institutionalized in the Philippines, with English serving as the medium of instruction. Thomasites then replaced the soldiers who had been serving as the first teachers. Outside the academe, the wide availability of reading materials, such as books and newspapers in English, helped Filipinos learn the language quickly. Because of this, the Philippine literature in English emerged and gained readers. On the other hand, as Christian country because of the 332 years of Spanish rule the Philippine Literature had originally been free from Gay Literature. According to Benedict Anderson, the desire to clear the indios of the Philippines from this same intransigently occidental charge of a wildly exuberant sodomitic nature must have been part of the production of nearly all these early Spanish texts. They were also finding blame for the homosexual issues, Phelan (1959) said that the Spanish observers were insulting Sinophobes who hated the Chinese as intensely as they were dependent upon them for certain economic services. Sinophobia may be unconsciously responsible for inventing the charge that the Chinese introduced sodomy to the Filipinos. If one group is against the church or the government, they cannot find justice; this is because the printing presses were all controlled by the church and even have a strong influence in the government. However, a strong gay and lesbian literature emerged in the Philippines in the last two decades of the twentieth century. While the early Filipino poets struggles with the the new language, Filipinos seemed to have taken easily to the modern short story as published in the Philippines Free Press, the College Folio and Philippines Herald. Paz Marquez Benitez’s “Dead Stars” published in 1925 was the first successful short story in English written by a Filipino. Later on, Arturo B. Rotor and Manuel E. Arguilla showed exceptional skills in writing short stories in English. It is not surprising then that as Philippine literature has emerged, gay Philippine literature has emerged as well. Even though gay poems and stories appeared in various publications during the early years, it wasn’t until the 1990s that books on gay themes began to be issued by Philippine publishers. Writers Danton Remoto and J. Neil C. Garcia were two of the first published, and have emerged as two of the most outstanding gay poets and essayists in the Philippines. In 1994, Remoto and Garcia teamed up to edit Ladlad: An Anthology of Philippine Gay Writing. It was a great move for this genre and literary critics in the Philippines began to take notice. Because of its popularity Ladlad 2 soon followed. . A seeming response in this may be seen in the opening of the first gay literature course in the University of the Philippines. The first time the course was offered at the UP in June 1994, both local and international press thought it fresh. Certainly, this novelty tended to the facetious for certain media practitioners.

Oral tradition was the start of literature: stories had been told and passed on to generations. Before the printing press was invented, these scholarly texts were hand-printed and literacy was exclusive only to church and court. It was only in 1450 when Johaness Gutenberg had invented the printing press in the part of the western world and made literacy a necessity to the public (Merritt, 2007).

With the single invention of the printing press, there aroused more than billions of books being printed up to the current generation. Writers had learned to create their own style or manifest a style derived from the other writers to attract readers. Nowadays, there are a lot of categories listed for styles and genres in writing. One of the most common is the short story.

Here in the Philippines, Paz Marquez Benitez’s “Dead Stars” published in 1925 was the first successful short story in English written by a Filipino. After that there had been many Filipino Writers that started different kinds of literature in English.

One of those who started the genre in Gay Literature are poets and newspaper columnists Danton Remoto and J. Neil C. Garcia. The two of the first published, and have emerged as two of the most outstanding gay poets and essayists in the Philippines. Remoto’s Skin, Voices, Faces appeared in 1991 and Garcia’s Closet Quivers in 1992. Tony Perez’s Cubao 1980 at Iba pang mga Katha, written in the national language, appeared the same year.

These books were followed by Margarity Go-Singco’s A Different Love: Being Gay in the Philippines (1993) and Nicolas B. Pichay’s Ang Lunes na Mahirap Bunuin (1993). In 1994, Remoto and Garcia teamed up to edit Ladlad: An Anthology of Philippine Gay Writing, and literary critics in the Philippines began to take notice. Ladlad 2 and Woman to Woman: A Collection of Lesbian Reflections (edited by Aida F. Santos and Ginay Villar) soon followed, and Remoto published a collection of essays, Seduction and Solitude, in 1995. Most of the gay titles have been published by Anvil Publishers, the publishing division of the National Book Store chain, which has bookstores in most of the Philippines’ large shopping malls. By 1997, Anvil was publishing a considerable number of gay titles each year. (Hale,  2002)

Because many Filipino writers have studied and lived for long periods of time in the United States, the lines between Filipino literature and Filipino-American literature are very difficult to draw. Thus, it is worthwhile to also mention the contributions to gay literature being made by Filipino-American writers.  (Hale,  2002)