Gay Pride Parade, a gender equality statement for SBMA
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — With a workforce of 126,000 employees, this premier Freeport is known to be the biggest employing economic zone in the country. Along with the number of workers, discrimination among members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community has been a part of the equation.
Often jeered and ridiculed by their fellow workers for being “different,” the so-called “third sex” has had it rough in terms of getting the much needed respect they so truly deserve. But with the appointment of a woman as the chairperson of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), drastic changes are about to happen.
And a testament to this change started on the streets last Sunday when more than a hundred participants from the LGBT community joined this premier Freeport’s first “Gay Pride Parade” at the Boardwalk Area.
SBMA Chairperson and Administrator Wilma Eisma led the Gay Pride Parade as delegates from the LGBT Barretto, the Antonio Family of San Felipe, the Antonio Family of San Narciso, the Bi Alliance of Bataan Olongapo and Iba, Proud Gays of Olongapo, the Montero Sisters, and the Smith Sisters joined the affair.
Bataan Representative Geraldine Roman, the first openly transgender woman elected to Congress, also showed up to lend her support to this new change initiated by Eisma in the SBMA, which is equality for all genders.
Roman said she is proud that the Anti-Discrimination Law has been passed in the Lower House via a unanimous decision, and that the bill will be taken to the Senate. “So it’s up to Senator Risa Hontiveros for the enactment of the bill,” she said.
Roman said that the Anti-Discrimination bill will punish anybody who discriminates against an LGBT person. Violators will be jailed for five years and fined R20,000.