‘PRIDE is not a sin,” Darren Stehle wrote in July 2019 in Medium, referring to Pride celebrations by the LGBT community every month of June. “It is not a deadly sin. Pride has many meanings to be sure, but the meaning here is about celebrating who we are, acknowledging our uniqueness, and our differences as gifts and strengths. We as LGBTQ people have the capacity to help this world evolve. We need to remind our friends, family and strangers that love, respect, and compassion are paramount.”
Earlier this month, in a direct rebuke to the anti-LGBT Trump administration, the US Supreme Court ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects gay, lesbian and transgender employees from discrimination based on sex. This was hailed as a major victory, bigger than the legalization of same-sex marriages in all 50 states in 2015.
Over the weekend, former US President Obama spoke at the virtual celebration of National Stonewall Day 2020, organized by Pride Live: “All that progress is worth celebrating and reflecting on. The struggle and triumph for LGBTQ rights shows how protest and politics go hand in hand—how we have to both shine a light on injustice and translate those aspirations into specific laws and institutional practices.”
The livestream event was for the benefit of Trans Lifeline, Brave Space Alliance, TransLatin@Coalition and the Ally Coalition, which are all suffering financial setbacks due to the pandemic. The participating stars included Taylor Swift, Cynthia Erivo, Kesha, Katy Perry, Christian Siriano, George Takei, Donatella Versace, Sir Richard Branson, Luke Evans and Conchita Wurst.
The fundraiser was hosted by Stonewall Day national chair Geena Rocero, perhaps the most prominent trans model and LGBT advocate of Filipino descent. She has received an award from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center together with Vogue’s Anna Wintour. She is one of two trans models to ever appear in a Harper’s Bazaar cover, for the October 2016 Indian edition, and a trailblazing August 2019 Playmate for Playboy.
Geena explains in her—interview by Tori Adams on why Pride is always a protest: “The Stonewall riots are absolutely connected to what has been happening with Black Lives Matter over the past couple years. Police brutality is exactly what the queer community was fighting against at the Stonewall Inn in 1969. Queer people, specifically queer people of color, were being targeted by the police when they were out walking in the street or when they were at LGBTQ-friendly bars just having fun in a safe space. Back then, there was an informal ‘three-item rule’ that was used to police the outfits of trans and gender-nonconforming people. Trans women couldn’t wear more than three feminine items. Eventually they got tired of not being recognized as women, so they fought back.”
Sadly, hereabouts the fight for LGBT rights continues. Last Friday, 20 mostly LGBT protesters were violently dispersed and arrested without warrants in Mendiola, Manila, as they were commemorating (and responsibly social-distancing) Pride Month, calling for the junking of the anti-terror bill and protesting the oppressive policies of the government in its response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Even Bea Luigi Gomez, a beauty queen who bravely came out as lesbian onstage during her competition, hasn’t been spared from persecution in this otherwise pageant-crazy country. She shared her story before this year’s Pride Month comes to a close:
“I’ve been criticized a lot for winning the Binibining Cebu crown for being gay. I just didn’t feel like I owe anyone my identity because the people who know me personally love me just the way I am, especially my family whose opinions matter to me the most, and so I decided to always be true to myself,” she wrote on Intagram. “If being gay didn’t make God happy, why then does He continue to bless me and give me the strength to overcome life’s every challenge? I only truly became happy and lived life to the full when I started becoming honest to myself.”
Danton Remoto, gay rights advocate, educator and author of Riverrun, a “rite-of-passage in the life of a young gay man in a colorful and chaotic dictatorship,” to be launched at the Manila International Bookfair in September, posted an appeal for our neglected gay elders:
“The Ladlad party-list is raising funds for the Golden Gays of Pasay City—old gay men abandoned by their families—who work as beauty-parlor workers and street sweepers. Covid-19 has left them jobless. Funds will go to their food packs, hand sanitizers, alcohol and masks. I will also ask Rock Ed Philippines for hand sanitizers and soap. Please help our 60 lolas. You may e-mail me at danton.lodestar@gmail.com or text Dexter at 0917-6111556. Thank you for your kind heart.”
It helps, too, that the LGBT community has vocal, influential and beautiful allies. Pia Wurtzbach, trained by excellent pageant coaches such as Jonas Gaffud on her way to becoming Miss Universe 2015, proudly declares herself an ally:
“Learning is always a two-way process. We listen as we understand each other’s points of view. Let me just make a stand that our friends and family in the LGBTQIA+ community have the right to take up space in our society… that their voices should be heard, that we don’t invalidate trans women as women. We can learn to accept these concepts by having a dialogue. By listening and understanding our differences, we will grow and uplift one another as one community in strengthening equality and diversity. Happy Pride!”
Catriona Gray, Miss Universe 2018, is also a courageous ally, firm in her convictions even as she is dismissed by detractors as merely a beauty queen. In an article she wrote for Vice.com, she asserts her allyship:
“My country has a long way to go when it comes to LGBTQ rights. Here, I feel the community is more tolerated than truly accepted. There are so many misconceptions about what it means to be gay, lesbian and trans, and I feel it’s mainly due to lack of representation and diversity in the media and the business sector. We’re such a religious country and I feel like it makes certain topics like sexuality, self-expression, and identity much more difficult to talk about, and that in turn fuels the stigma that negatively defines so many Filipinos’ lives. It’s difficult to open these conversations because religion is weaponized against the LGBTQ community. And as a Christian, I don’t believe that’s right. I believe religion should never be used as an excuse to hate. Most religions, at their core, teach love.
“As allies, let’s ask ourselves, why do we care? For me, it’s because I’ve heard other people’s stories and it bothers me that we’re not all treated the same. No one should be made to feel unsafe, disrespected, or lesser-than. To get to that point, we need to humble ourselves, embrace our learning curves and, once we feel capable, raise our voices for those who cannot.”