Pride celebrated at the southernmost city in the Philippines.
General Santos City hosted its first-ever Pride parade for its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, in time as the world observed the World AIDS Day on December 1, 2016.
Dubbed as an “equality parade”, this was actually organized by the local government unit’s City Population Management Office (CPMO), and comes just as the city’s various minority sectors – including the LGBT community – celebrated the passage of the anti-discrimination ordinance (ADO), which is now awaiting the signature of Mayor Ronnel Rivera.
Speaking to Outrage Magazine, local trans leader Andrea Faith Mahiwaga of the Transgender GenSan Organization said that even if the Pride gathering was not completely helmed by the local LGBT community, its relevance cannot be undermined because it managed to showcase, all the same, that “nagkakaisa ang LGBT community ng GenSan (the LGBT community members of GenSan are united)”, even as they also need to express gratitude “for the arrival of the ADO.”
Mahiwaga added that the local LGBT community is already planning to take full ownership of GenSan’s Pride with plans for a similar gathering in early 2017.
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANDREA FAITH MAHIWAGA
