[Pink Scene] QC LGBT Pride March 2015

This year's QC LGBT Pride March will be this Saturday, December 5, 2015. Registration starts at 02:00pm at Tomas Morato corner Don Roces Avenue.

In addition, this year's street party after the march itself will be handled by Jungle Circuit Party. The street party will not charge entrance and features several DJs including DJ Brian Cua, Billboard # 1 remixer DJ Toy Armada, DJ Poi, Brazilian DJ Romeo Cavalcante and International Circuit DJ Jay Santos!

[Pink Scene] Call to March for LGBT Pride!

Tomorrow is the first of December, and that means it's time for the annual Metro Manila LGBTQ Pride March. But this year there are actually two Pride Marches - one organized by Task Force Pride (TFP) in Malate and another organized by the Quezon City Pride Council and naturally in Quezon City. And while some have started to ask why there have to be two marches as if this was somehow a bad thing, I'd like to stress that this isn't bad at all.

In other countries we see different LGBTQ Pride festivals and marches hosted in different cities - not just states or political territories like NCR / Metro Manila but in actual cities. It's a great sign of support for the LGBTQ community and a good venue for getting more support for our fight for equal rights and full recognition in the eyes of the law.

For TFP, this marks the 20th year of LGBTQ Pride Marches in Metro Manila. The Metro Manila Pride march is the oldest LGBTQ Pride March in Asia and that's a lot to be thankful for indeed. We still have a long way to go in terms of national recognition and advancing any national legislation to protect the rights of the pink community, but that doesn't mean we should stop fighting.

For Quezon City this is the first LGBTQ Pride March to be officially hosted by the. Given the many moves by the city to support the LGBTQ community including a rather sweeping anti-discrimination city ordinance, there's a lot to be said about Quezon City as being a pro-LGBT city. And these efforts definitely deserve some support.

So whether you march in Malate on December 6 or you march in Quezon City on December 13 or both - stand up and be recognized! Show support for LGBTQ Rights! Whether you're a member of the community or a straight ally who wants to show support for your LGBTQ friends, then be sure to join at least one of the Pride Marches this year.

[Pink News] Quezon City Comes Out to Support the LGBT Community

So I've been pretty stoked about the fact that the Quezon City's City Council has pretty much passed an Anti-Discrimination Ordinance meant to protect members of the LGBT community. Extending beyond the context of the workplace, the Gender Fair City Ordinance is a pretty comprehensive city ordinance that offers a variety of ways to extend greater protections for LGBTs along with accompanying programs to educate people about the SOGIE concepts. It's a lot to tackle all at once, but for the most part it sounds pretty good.

But beyond the ordinance itself, which has largely been associated with members of the Council alone, it was nice to have Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista release comments not just in support of the ordinance, but also in support of same-sex marriage and greater LGBT rights. He's one of the few (if not the only) city mayor who has come out in support of LGBT rights in such a clear and definitive manner. In addition, these statements come backed by action in the form of the ordinance and the fact that the QC LGBT Pride March is actually one of the many events listed as part of Quezon City's 75th anniversary.

Under Mayor Herbert Bautista, Quezon City has suddenly become the only city government to publicly support LGBT rights. And if they keep this up, I totally see this as a serious effort by the city as a whole to make members of the LGBT community feel truly welcome and safe. And now I have even more reasons to be happy to be living in Quezon City. And I can see this as a key reason for more folks to find a home here - something that we've never really had up until this point. In the US they run annual lists for the top ten best cities for LGBT individuals but thus far we haven't really had any options around here.

And all the more I want to support the QC LGBT Pride March this year. Beyond the formation of the QC Pride Council last year and the city council wins now, there's certainly a lot to celebrate.

[Pink Scene] TFP Cancels 2013 Metro Manila Pride Celebration

This weekend TFP announced that it was cancelling its 2013 Metro Manila Pride Celebrations for undisclosed reasons. As much as I have been critical of the group in recent months (specifically regarding how they handled their initial marketing for this event) and my history as a volunteer for the group, at the end of the day this is sad news. After 18 years of working to promote LGBT pride in Metro Manila through the annual Metro Manila Pride March and other activities, this marks the first year that TFP will not have an event.

In addition, the closing paragraph inviting others to take on the mantle of leadership for the group is a little unsettling and in itself hints at some of the possible reasons that the event is not pushing through. I'll leave it to all of you to discuss among yourselves.

At the very least, we still have the first Quezon City World Pride Festival to look forward to this year. Among Metro Manila cities, this is the first city-aligned Pride event ever and with luck this may become a model for future pride celebrations in other cities in the Philippines. With TFP's future looking a little uncertain, we may have indeed reached that point when city-level interest and awareness is needed to take the fight for LGBT rights to a more direct level in terms of talking to our local government.

What is important is that we always continue to fight for LGBT rights in the Philippines and celebrate the diversity of who we are.

[Pink Scene] Quezon City World Pride Festival 2013

Earlier this year, the Quezon City government announced that it was forming an LGBT Pride Council to "oversee the integration of all city programs and projects for the LGBT community". And while we have a large number of LGBT groups active in the country, there are very few cases when a city government actually takes steps to get involved and it's definitely a big reason I'm glad that I'm a QC resident. 

The Pride Council is led by movie and television director Soxie Topacio and the rest of the group consists of an interesting mix of LGBT advocates and government officials. But of course the real question about this whole initiative is what they're actually going to do to help the Quezon City LGBT community.

Beyond operating a one-stop QC protection center for victims and survivors of gender-based violence and abuse in the city, their first major project for the year is putting together Quezon City's first major pride activity. Called the World Pride Festival, the month-long event promises to be a pretty exciting celebration of the LGBT community and its allies.