Around 5,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual citizens and their straight supporters and AIDS activists marched in the party district of Quezon City to highlight the joint observance of LGBT Pride and World AIDS Day on the afternoon 4 December 2010. It may be the first time a Philippine municipal government officially sponsored and bankrolled a gay pride event in this majority Catholic country.
The parade was the biggest yet in the country ever since a ragtag crowd of less than a hundred militants under the flag of ProGay (click on www.progay.multiply.com) and Metropolitan Community Church staged Asia's first LGBT Pride march in June 1994. With the theme "One Love: Stop AIDS, Promote LGBT Human Rights, Keep the Promise," the parade was organized by Task Force Pride (TFP) and the Philippine AIDS Society. Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista and his vice mayor Joy Belmonte both sanctioned the parade and sent droves of their supporters into the sprawling Tomas Morato clubbing strip.
During the post-parade street party, Representative Teodoro Casiño of the leftist party Bayan Muna (People First) threw the crowd into a frenzy when he announced the filing of House Bill 1483 or the Anti-Discrimination Act of 2010. His proposed law defines discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and will penalize discriminatory acts in housing, employment, the use of public spaces and the enrolment in schools. (Click on this link for House Bill 1483 http://www.congress.gov.ph/press/details.php?pressid=4694)
The political leadership of Quezon City is seen as a trailblazer in social reform. The city whose initial QC is also spelled out as Queer City in jest has already passed a city ordinance banning anti-LGBT discrimination in 2004, and a measure promoting a government-supported program of artificial birth control and reproductive health that covers HIV prevention in 2008, even as the neighboring city of Manila festered with unwanted pregnancies under a staunchly pro-life ex-mayor Lito Atienza.
Partygoers are also abandoning the bohemian haunts of the Malate gay district in favor of the pulsating night life of Cubao, Eastwood and North Triangle of Quezon City. Yet harassment of gay establishments is still a huge problem, as underpaid QC cops habitually resort to swooping down on gay saunas, cinemas and cruisy parks to extort the pink peso from their gay victims.
Many of ex-mayor Atienza's pro-life friends who railed against homosexuality and women's rights were drubbed in last year's congressional elections. However, Casiño said the work ahead for the Anti-Discrimination Bill is still fraught with difficulties, as the numbers of advocated in the House of Representatives remain in the minority.
Community groups such as the gay political party Ang LADLAD, Society of Transexual Women of the Philippines, Gabriela, Amnesty International, Rainbow Rights, UP Babaylan, Leap, and MCC Quezon City held aloft extra-large rainbow flags and placards calling for the end to discrimination. The parade saw a surprising strong show of force by gay clubs and comedy bars that usually showed little support in the past years.
A few bible-wielding religious counter-demonstrators tried to make their presence felt with anti-gay signs with messages like "God did not make you gay!" but they were definitely less numerous and less acrimonious than last year's bully throng. Their signs were easily outnumbered and owned by funny signs from pride marchers that mocked the religious passages. Alternately, even the counter-demonstrators were smothered from the view of cameras by the fluffy gowns of drag queens.
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