Proud of your tribe, Proud of your PRIDE
Aside from the never-ceasing issues that opened the lenses of many Filipinos about how the government handling our current situation about Covid19, respecting one’s gender preference is one of the biggest controversies that we are facing today.
The month of June is also known as the Pride Month for LGBTQ+ community. Pride Month is originated in the United States and was first celebrated in 1994. This celebration commemorates society’s acceptance of lesbians, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and the like. Twenty-six years passed, although there are people who accept and embraces that LGBTQ community exists, others still remain blind and deaf about it.
The question is… do we really accept “them” in our society? Why other people don’t really like “them”?
Them – a pronoun used in place of a noun in a group. Yes, a noun which means name. They have names. We have names. Yes, I am actually one of them and I stand pride about it. We are people and we have feelings. They could be our sister, brother, friend, auntie, uncle, cousin, father, or even mother, and yet there are people who don’t accept us. It’s been twenty-six years yet the idea of coexisting as humans based on gender is still quite vague for everyone yet the LGBTQ+ community prefers to fight and raise their flag for them to be recognized.
This June 2020 is another Pride Month to remember. It is a mix of the parade where LGBTQ+ people reminds us to stand for equality or liberty from discrimination. Acceptance to you, to the society where we move around. Where no eyes look at us to criticize, no mind to think of how to bully us, no means for them to discriminate us.
The LGBTQ+ community made sure that their voices will be heard. They march with pride to celebrate themselves and to call out the political issues in our country. They served as a human shield and a megaphone against harassment and that re-echoes their thirst for freedom and for an equal society. This is not a new battle but a progressive battle of respect where coexisting is safe and pleasant and while Pride Month will always be Pride Month, let's not shut down our own voices to support advocacies that will improve our very existence, queer or not.
And for those who don’t believe in such a society? Is it their fault? Is it their responsibility, to despise humans like them because of gender? or does it hurt their own pride? Whichever it is and whatever we believe, COEXISTENCE is possible if the very core of it is RESPECT.