Not even a festering pandemic will stop Filipinos from finding ways to celebrate Pride during the colorful month of 2021.
Reiterating that Pride celebration is a protest, this year’s Metro Manila Pride (MMP) is staging several online activities to bring attention to the rising cases of LGBTQ+ discrimination and human rights violations during the pandemic. MMP is Southeast Asia’s largest Pride festival.
With its 2021 theme “SULONG, VAKLASH! Sama-samang Pag-aklas Ang Ating Lunas,” MMP aims to highlight calls for gender equality and intersectional solidarity through their initiatives during Pride month.
“VAKLASH” is a play on the word “pagbaklas” or dismantling the system that oppresses the LGBTQ+ community and other minority groups. Several organizations, including Philippine Anti-Discrimination Alliance of Youth Leaders (PANTAY) Pilipinas and Bahaghari, have also adopted the call in their own this month.
Similar to last year, MMP will be staging its annual Pride march and festival online. It is set June 26, a Saturday.
Leading up to the virtual event are several activities focused on celebrating queer creators, raising discussions on LGBTQ+ issues, and even teaching how to make protest art.
Check out MMP’s activities below:
- June 4: Hangout Sessions: On Conversations
- June 12: Sulong Sining 2021: Queer Creators Festival
- June 19: Sulong Sabay-Sabahay Zoom Party
- June 25: #AKLASRUM: A hangout session on protest-art making
Vist Metro Manila Pride’s Facebook page for more updates about its events.
You can also stay tuned to Miss Trans Global Philippines, which will culminate on June 6.
Other groups are also hosting a diverse array of events that you can join to celebrate Pride.
LoveYourself
Under its #UMatter campaign, LoveYourself will stage two main events celebrating queer artists and performers, as well as seek solutions to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
From June 3 to 4, it will hold a forum on regional solutions for HIV health care in collaboration with International AIDS Society.
Invited speakers include health experts and officials from the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, the Philippine Department of Health, and other health organizations around the world. HIV healthcare community workers and advocates from Southeast Asia, including Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach and Miss Trans Global 2020 Miss Mela Habijan, will also join the event. To join, sign up at bit.ly/IASxLYSymposium.
This will be followed by its #PrideStartsWithU concert on June 5, from 4 to 6 pm. The diverse concert line-up stars drag performers and queer artists, including Popster Bench, the drag queen behind the ‘Tala’ sensation. It is co-presented by Spaces MNL, the Philippine Financial & Inter-Industry Pride, Accenture, and P&G. It will be streamed on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/174006317972844.
University of the Philippines Babaylan
UP Babaylan is accepting letters for their 2021 edition of Pride Letters, a safe space where queers can send their message to all queer people, queer youth, closeted queers, trans people, any other group within the LGBTQ+ community, and even their families and friends. Send your #PrideLetters here: tinyurl.com/prideletters2021.
UP Los Baños Babaylan
In light of recent cases of LGBTQ+ discrimination, UPLB Babaylan will hold an online conference on the LGBTQ+ situation in Southern Tagalog on Monday, June 7. Moreover, a virtual candle lighting rally to commemorate LGBTQ+ victims of violence will be held on June 24. It will later hold the Southern Tagalog Pride March on Monday, June 28. You may watch the event livestreams on the Southern Tagalog Pride Facebook page.
You may also view a wide range of queer artists’ artworks from photographs, illustrations to stories, and poems in the fifth edition of UPLB Babaylan’s Pride Series exhibition on their Facebook page. – Rappler.com
Joven Jacolbia is a Rappler volunteer studying organizational communication at the University of the Philippines Manila (UPM). He is editor-in-chief of Assortedge Media and Research and Education Head of Bahagsari UPM.