Paola
Age: 26
What she does: Chef
Hobbies/Interests: Politics, Filipino pop culture, MMA, playing with cats and dogs
Goal in life: To change the world one meal at a time. Also, I just wanna be a source of pride of my family especially my mom and my grandparents. I wanted them to think that they raised a good kid somehow.
Being queer is really just being true to who you are. People just really like categorizing too much that’s why these labels are here. But yeah, we have to embrace the fact that each and everyone of us are different. No two people are the same.”
Believe that the people around you are smarter and are more compassionate than you think they are. I realized that people value your attitude more than your sexuality. They will only judge you at the beginning but if you show them great character and if you treat them with respect, I guarantee you a 100% that they’ll see past your being LGBT. So set aside your fears and stop worrying. Instead, come out, be fabulous, and inspire change in the way people think about us.
Majority of Filipinos need to be more educated, or let’s just say “informed” regarding the LGBT community. It’s not really their fault that they remain unacquainted regarding issues that we fight for because they do not experience the same battles that we try to win everyday. Hence, it is our duty as a community to constantly enlighten them and make them understand our struggles so that they can see and further understand that being LGBT is really just being a male or a female, no big deal.