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Successes marked, but more efforts to promote Pride pushed in Antipolo

The current local government unit of Antipolo may be pro-LGBTQIA, but the city still doesn’t have an anti-discrimination policy for LGBTQIA people. So for Murphy Red, co-organizer of Stonewall Manila in 1994, the very first Pride march in the Asia-Pacific, “we should mark Pride as a protest since still not all of us have human rights.”

ANTIPOLO CITY – Even as leaders from the local LGBTQIA community expressed their appreciation for a somewhat pro-LGBTQIA local government unit (LGU), at this year’s Pride observance, they still highlighted the absence of an actual anti-discrimination policy that will protect the human rights of LGBTQIA people in the city.

“We have small successes that we should rightfully celebrate,” said in the vernacular Antipolo-based Murphy Red, who co-organized Stonewall Manila in 1994, recognized as the very first Pride march in the Philippines and in Asia and the Pacific. As an example, Antipolo City has an anti-discrimination policy related to the workplace. And yet “we should mark Pride as a protest since still not all of us have human rights.”

But also, added Kristine T. Ibardolaza, kagawad from Barangay Mayamot, “we mark Pride not just for LGBTQIA people, but for everyone to also have pride.”

This is also a moment to call for unity, said Parreno, who is urging local LGBTQIA organizations to surface so “all of us can be seen, can be counted.”

Currently, TAO is working with local politicians to pass an anti-discrimination ordinance (ADO) to protect the human rights of LGBTQIA people in Antipolo. And “its passage is near,” said Parreno.

Ibardolaza added that the local ADO should be passed in the next year/s, if not month/s.

But for Murphy Red, exactly because there are still no laws ensuring that all LGBTQIA people’s human rights are protected, “dapat mabagsik ang paggunita natin sa Pride (our Pride should be feisty),” he said. – WITH ALBERT TAN MAGALLANES, JR. AND ARTHUR ABAD NWABIA

The founder of Outrage Magazine, Michael David dela Cruz Tan completed BA Communication Studies from University of Newcastle in NSW, Australia; and Master of Development Communication from the University of the Philippines-Open University. Conversant in Filipino Sign Language, Mick can: photograph, do artworks with mixed media, write (DUH!), shoot flicks, community organize, facilitate, lecture, and research (with pioneering studies under his belt). He authored "Being LGBT in Asia: Philippines Country Report", and "Red Lives" that creatively retells stories from the local HIV community. Among others, Mick received the Catholic Mass Media Awards in 2006 for Best Investigative Journalism, and Art that Matters - Literature from Amnesty Int'l Philippines in 2020. Cross his path is the dare (guarantee: It won't be boring).

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