PDI cancels comic strip implying pretty students from girls' school are lesbians

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Daily Inquirer announced on Wednesday its decision to pull out a famous comic strip from its Comic Relief section after its June 4 issue about students from an exclusive girls' school drew flak from online citizens.

On Tuesday's issue of Pugad Baboy, created by cartoonist Apolonio 'Pol' Medina, Jr., two women were talking about the supposed hypocrisy of Christians for condemning gays and lesbians, and condoning homosexuality among female students in exclusive schools at the same time.

One character said, "Sa St. Scho e wala kang makikitang magandang kulasa na walang girlfriend (In St. Scholastica, you will not find a pretty 'kulasa' who has no girlfriend)." 'Kulasa' is a term referring to students of the school.

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The other character meanwhile said, "Di kaya tongril din yung mga madre (Maybe the nuns are also lesbians)?"

The comic strip has been shared more than 5,000 times among social networking sites as of this posting.

"The mere fact that this particular comic strip made such a cheap and low blow at exclusive Catholic schools only shows us who the true judgmental hypocrites really are," read a comment made by Jenny Santiago, who claims to be an alumna of the school.

"First of all, being what gender you want to be is a freewill. Schools like St. Scho woudn't be able to control the students if they choose to be lesbians. Second, why are you attacking St. Scho? Are we the only exclusive school with this kind of issue? Third, you're obviously generalizing not only the school, but also the entire Christian community. You can't just use my alma mater to provide example for hypocrite Christians who, you say "hate gays and lesbians." And lastly, not all Christians hate gays and lesbians. It is a personal choice of the individual if he/she would hate such genders," said an anonymous commenter.

The newspaper said the comic strip will not appear in the section starting Friday while its reader's advocate investigates the issue.

Pugad Baboy (Pig's Nest) is a comic strip first published in 1988. It is about a community of fat people who discuss various social issues including crime, politics, media and corruption, among others.