ALL PHOTOS BY MICHAEL DAVID C. TAN & AARON MOISES C. BONETE
CIRCUIT MAKATI, MAKATI CITY – Metro Manila Pride (MMP), organizer of an annual Pride gathering in Metro Manila since 2015, held its 2023 Pride in Makati City, the country’s financial hub.
Dubbed “Tayo Ang Kulayaan: Pride March and Festival”, this year’s gathering – similar to other Pride events in the Philippines this year – highlighted the continuing failure to pass the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Gender Expression or Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) Equality Bill due to extremist religious politicians that have been blocking LGBTQIA anti-discrimination for over 20 years now.
The SOGIESC Equality Bill passed the House Committee on Women and Gender Equality in the House of Representatives, though it is being blocked by the likes of religious politicians Reps. Bienvenido “Benny” Mirando Abante Jr. and Eduardo “Eddie” Cruz Villanueva. In the Senate, the bill (Senate Bill 1934) authored by Senator Risa Hontiveros was dumped to the committee of the son of Rep. Villanueva, Sen. Joel Villanueva, who is similarly employing tactics to delay – if not actually block – the anti-discrimination bill.
Interestingly, even the location of MMP’s Pride does not have an anti-discrimination policy to protect the human rights of LGBTQIA people there.
In 2006, under the term of former Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay, the local government unit (LGU) saw the passage of an ordinance supposed to protect “Makatizens” from being discriminated because of their sex and gender particularly in terms of hiring, promotion, training, et cetera. However, as part of Binay’s gender and development (GAD) effort for the city that his family has been helming for years, this ordinance is not LGBTQIA-specific.
Now more commercial in nature, with sponsorships from the likes of KFC, Cornetto, Durex, Close-Up, McDonald’s, and TaskUs, this year’s Pride gathering saw performaces from the likes of Melrose the Doll, Mrs. Tan, Max Chanel, Nica del Rosario, TFX, TSN, Jona Quinn, Kween Yasmin, Manila Pride Color Guard, Maria Cristina, Matthew Chang, Maxie Andreison, Inah Demons, Ja Quintana, and Lady Morgana.
MMP is an offshoot of Task Force Pride, the community-led organization it hijacked in 2015 to take over hosting of Pride in these parts of the Philippines.
