While there were members of the LGBT community who took the day off during May 1st (e.g. #LaBoracay), the international observance of Labor Day to highlight the contributions of the “uring manggagawa (working people)”, there were also LGBT people who walked the streets and joined the calls for better working conditions.
In Metro Manila, because the LGBT community’s struggle continues for equal rights continues to be seen as part of the bigger fight for social justice, LGBT people joined the “uring manggagawa” in the fight for more humane working conditions (e.g. wage hike, better working conditions, end of contractualization, holding abusive employers accountable, et cetera).
“Even if we succeed in our struggles, the LGBT people’s fight for equal rights will be shallow if others also at the fringes of society suffer the way we did/do and are left behind,” said Michael David C. Tan, publishing editor of Outrage Magazine.
Meanwhile, Pastor Kakay Pamaran of the Metropolitan Community Church-Quezon City said: “There is reason why red is the first color of the rainbow– we must first assert and demand justice for all oppressed. Only then can we behold life in all its beautiful colors. Only then can we truly be free.”
It was earlier reported that more than two-thirds of the country’s nearly 40 million workers suffered from labor law violations. These violations include working in unsafe environments, contractualization, wages that do not compensate for the number of hours served, and abuses committed by employers that go unpunished.
