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SOGIESC advocates in Cebu urge fellow queer comrades to be active in their localities and strive to improve discourse with non-queer communities
CEBU, Philippines – Great pride and joy filled the heart of Honey Saludes, president of LGBT-led group Repos Angels Incorporated, after seeing the massive growth in attendance for pride events in Cebu City.
Saludes has been organizing pro-LGBTQIA+ events for more than two decades. One of the primary events that they organize annually is the “Gaksa Ko Beh” (Cebuano for hug me), a commemoratory event that not only showcased the talents of queer individuals but also brought them closer to health services.
“Mas nagkadaghan ang nisalmot sa [event]…happy kaayo ko naa diri mga taga-upland, sa mga kabukirang barangay sa syudad sa Sugbo, nisalmot sad sila,” they told Rappler.
(More and more people are participating in the [event]…I’m so happy that people from the uplands, from the mountainous barangays of Cebu City, are participating too)
For this year’s Cebu City Pride Parade that was held at the Plaza Independencia on Saturday, June 28, Saludes said that it was vital for queer individuals to be involved in their respective communities.
“For me, after 23 years of being with the Repos Angels, I started out with volunteering with the understanding that we can’t get the respect and trust we ask for if we don’t contribute,” Saludes said in a mix of English and Cebuano.
As a queer individual, Saludes expressed that the local queer community still experiences some form of discrimination but not without improvements over the years through active participation in community building projects in villages.
Cebu City is one of three highly-urbanized cities in the province of Cebu that has a local policy that prohibits and penalizes violence and discrimination against a person’s Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Gender Expression, and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC).
Saludes, who is also a councilor at Barangay Day-as in Cebu City, urged fellow queer individuals to volunteer for awareness campaigns on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and sex education programs.
“The challenge is to relentlessly show them that we are trying to convince them that we are all human, worthy of being accepted,” the advocate said.
The movement is local
Ramon Matthew Reyes Basabe, co-organizer of the Cebu Pride Movement (CPM), told Rappler that this year’s Pride month celebration in Cebu took a “step back” to focus on realigning the community for better discourse.
“If it’s still going to be just the LGBT community still rallying for the SOGIESC and our heterosexual friends are not with us, then the Philippines will never understand the SOGIESC equality bill,” Basabe said.
The SOGIESC Equality Bill has been stuck in congress since 2000. Many LGBT advocacy groups have rallied in the streets for this year’s Pride Month, calling for the passage of the bill.
Basabe explained that the “resistance” against the bill is due to a lack of understanding between queer and non-queer communities, especially in the rural parts of the country.
“On local government unit support, we have new leaders every three years and so the movement either gets halted or expedited…the whole community needs to align,” the LGBT advocate said.
“For me, the movement is local and this goes back to acknowledging that in as much the world calls for pushing SOGIESC or acceptance everywhere, it depends on their situation in the localities,” Basabe added. – Rappler.com
