LGBTQIA people and ally communities in Marikina are marking Pride this 2022 on June 25, from 6:00PM at the Marikina Freedom Park.
Themed “Kulay natin ‘to!”, this year’s Pride hopes to stress the reclamation of – and taking pride in – people’s identities, including being LGBTQIA.
This year’s event is, in a way, a return to localizing Pride for LGBTQIA people of Marikina.
Historical records are patchy, but according to Bishop Richard Mickley, Ph.D., of the Order of Saint Aelred, a Pride-related gathering already happened in Marikina as early as 1995. It is not known for sure, however, if this gathering was just a parade or a march that called for the protection of LGBTQIA human rights in the city.
But the local LGBTQIA community knowingly held its own Pride event in December 2016.
Nonetheless, prior to the pandemic, local LGBTQIA leaders worked with the more commercialized Metro Manila Pride (MMP) which held its annual Pride parade in the city for years. For this year, MMP opted for Pasay to be the venue of their Pride festival, so Marikina’s local LGBTQIA community has emerged to organize a Marikina-centric Pride.
Marikina is, by the way, considered as one of the more progressive cities in the Philippines. In 2019, the city joined the list of local government units (LGUs) that now has an anti-discrimination policy that eyes to protect the human rights of its LGBTQIA constituents. Offenders may be penalized from P1,000 (first offense) to P2,000/P5,000 (second and third-time offenders), along with imprisonment of up to 15 days.
