Pride season is here. June is the month that marks the beginning of our rather elusive quest for queer equality. This year, the Filipino LGBTIQ+ community celebrates 25 years of proudly and bravely standing for equal rights. Decades has passed but until today we still struggle with the same non-inclusivity, discrimination, and violence. There are those being harassed and attacked even in buses; those being discriminated in their workplace, worse, such was done by the supposedly agents of change in a learning institution; and those being discriminated on the streets on the basis of who they are, who they love or even just how a person looks. Today, we stand together as we protest and fight against misogynistic and homophobic acts of inequality and injustice.
We celebrate pride amidst the struggles and what is yet a long journey to go. We will continue to fight for equal rights, and refuse to live in a mere tolerant society. Slam all forms of discrimination and those that instigate such. The SOGIE Equality Bill has been continuously shelved off by the same people whose primary mandate is to protect and uphold human rights, but we will not concede. These small setbacks and bumps on the road to equality and freedom tender seeds of resistance. There’s still a lot to be done but we believe that there is unity at the heart of diversity, and in unity, there is victory!
Rise up, endure, and resist together!
#YEStoEquality #JusticeandProtectionForAll #ResistTogether #GALANGPhilippines
