LOS BAÑOS, LAGUNA – LGBTQIA Pride in metropolitan areas have long evolved from its political roots to now focus on commercialization of the rainbow community, but in Los Baños, the call made during the Southern Tagalog Pride (STP) 2024 focused on keeping Pride as a protest, particularly since minority sectors – all with LGBTQIA members – continue to be deprived of their basic human rights.
According to Dudin Albani, chairperson of STP, based on the LGBTQIA experience, Pride will always be a protest more than a celebration, he said in the vernacular.
“Pride is a protest because the human rights of LGBTQIA people are still not recognized,” Albani stressed.
As stressed during STP, the issues of LGBTQIA people cannot be separated from the issues of other minority sectors.
“We are all pushed by the government at the brink of dying,” Albani said. “We all tolerate infinitesimal wages just so we can eat, and yet all expenses are increasing.”
With this, “the march continues. The fight of LGBTQIA people continues,” Albani stressed. “Rise to fight for our rights, for true freedom.” – WITH MICHAEL DAVID C. TAN AND ARTHUR ABAD NWABIA
