To kick off the celebration of Pride Month, the Lagablab LGBTQI+ network hold an equality rally at the Boy Scout Circle in Quezon City on June 2, 2023 to call for an end to discrimination and pass the SOGIE Equality Bill. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News

Pride Month

Josiah Eleazar Antonio

ABS-CBN News

<p><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">MANILA <strong>(UPDATED)</strong> —</span> As Pride 2024 opens, the LGBT community in the Philippines promised a &quot;show of force&quot; for passage of a bill against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics — legislation that opponents of the bill say is unnecessary and could encroach on freedom of religion.</p><p>The Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality filed a consolidated SOGIESC Equality Bill in 2022 after committee hearings. Versions at the House have been transmitted to its Committee on Appropriations.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/12/10/23/love-letter-campaign-launched-for-senate-passage-of-sogie-bill">READ: &#x27;Love letter&#x27; campaign launched to urge Senate passage of SOGIE bill</a></div><p>&quot;We’re happy to see more and more Filipino families stand up for their LGBTQIA+ children, relatives, and loved ones. Amidst the many faces of discrimination and violence against the LGBTIQ+ community, we remain hopeful that more allies and rainbow families will show up and share their love and support at the Pride March and for the SOGIE Equality Bill,&quot; PANTAY national convenor Vince Liban told ABS-CBN News.</p><p>Liban said the celebration of Pride Month, when the community and its allies celebrate LGBTQIA+ people as well as their contributions to the nation,&quot;will be one voice calling for a national legislation that will protect LGBTIQ+ Filipinos in schools, workplaces, and in the streets.&quot;</p><p>Pride Month closes with the Pride March — set for June 22 this year — and will be a &quot;show of force&quot; as well as a &quot;love letter&quot; to Congress to urge lawmakers to &quot;embrace equality and pass the SOGIE Equality Bill,&quot; Liban also said.</p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ESwYU9WRkUw?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>Opponents of the bill — including Sen. Joel Villanueva and his father, religious leader and CIBAC party-list Rep. Eddie Villanueva — worry that passage of the bill would<a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/08/29/19/sogie-bill-gives-special-rights-to-lgbtq-community-bro-eddie-says?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2EZMm7MuF1vxSWadSF7WdL5PZXAw8gbNwjzdwRFg1ana_2iF9fRwIMoEs_aem_AdqWA05kJ2UCQ-DryRAdA7fWhrhl09cNmdUM3TfCARlTDXqRzkK1fJ2IYMBxlGINB5FRN_FqyRmNonSTO4iR1JUn"> create &quot;special rights&quot; for LGBTQIA+ people and threaten &quot;social order.&quot;</a></p><p>Sen. Villanueva last year suggested a more &quot;holistic&quot; anti-discrimination bill to <a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/06/06/23/villanueva-sogie-bill-not-priority-measure">benefit all marginalized groups.</a></p><p>Babaylanes Inc. executive editor Jap Ignacio is hopeful that the SOGIESC Equality Bill will finally reach the floor after being stalled <a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/06/06/23/villanueva-sogie-bill-not-priority-measure">at the Committee on Rules</a>, which handles the calendaring of measures, since early 2023.</p><p>&quot;With the recent change in leadership, and with Sen. Francis Tolentino as the new chair of the Committee on Rules, we hope to see more champions and allies for the bill,&quot; <span id="isPasted" style="caret-color:rgb(65, 65, 65);color:rgb(65, 65, 65)">Ignacio told ABS-CBN News.</span></p><p>&quot;In the past year, the Filipino LGBTQIA+ community has fought for and achieved numerous wins, but moving into Pride 2024, we also understand that there is much work to be done, as the community continues to face widespread discrimination, injustice, and exploitation.&quot;</p><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/2024/2/28/-drag-race-marina-summers-discusses-lack-of-anti-discrimination-law-in-ph-1741">&#x27;Drag Race: UK vs the World&#x27;: Marina Summers discusses lack of anti-discrimination law in PH</a></div><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal"> </div><p>Bahaghari chairperson Reyna Valmores said that the LGBTQIA+ community will also continue to assert their rights in the community, as well as on national issues like opposition to charter change.</p><p>&quot;Young people, workers, and professional LGBTQIA+ are presently the face of the community’s resistance to this measure, which would ultimately lead to privatized and less accessible education, depressed real wages, and more opportunities for trapos to continue swindling the people — all merely to line the pockets of foreign businessmen,&quot; Valmores said.</p><p>&quot;For these reasons, the LGBTQIA+ community will not hold back this Pride month in asserting our demands: democratic rights and protection through the SOGIESC Equality Bill, inclusive spaces and dignified wages through minimum wage increases across the board, and a new Philippine framework towards a genuinely independent foreign policy,&quot; she added.</p><p>The SOGIESC Equality Bill has been filed in Congress in various iterations and has languished there for more than 20 years. </p><p>President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, in December 2023, ordered the creation of a special committee on LGBT affairs as part of a government effort to &quot;strengthen existing mechanisms to address the continued discrimination being experienced by the members of the LGBTQIA+ community.&quot;</p><p>Groups welcome the development but said the panel <a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/12/26/23/lgbt-committee-welcome-but-lacks-inclusivity-groups">needs better representation from and engagement with the community</a>.</p>

<p>As Pride 2024 opens, the LGBT community in the Philippines promised a "show of force" to pass SOGIESC Equality Bill.</p>

As Pride 2024 opens, the LGBT community in the Philippines promised a "show of force" to pass SOGIESC Equality Bill.

As Pride 2024 opens, LGBT community promises 'show of force' to pass SOGIESC Equality Bill | ABS-CBN

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As Pride 2024 opens, LGBT community promises 'show of force' to pass SOGIESC Equality Bill

Josiah Eleazar Antonio,

ABS-CBN News

Published Jun 01, 2024 07:57 AM PHT

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Updated Jun 04, 2024 09:57 AM PHT

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Pride Month

SOGIESC Equality Bill

SOGIE Bill

LGBTQIA+ community

Pantay

Babaylanes

Bahaghari

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