Final countdown for World Outgames 2009 and the screening of Queen Raquela in Manila

I purposely waited for April Fool's Day to pass and did not make any attempt at making an April Fool's post because I was sure I'd fail miserably at it. Belated Happy April Fool's Day to all though. Monica Roberts, long-time activist for transgender civil rights in the US, over at her blog Transgriot made a jaw-dropping April Fool's blog entry that you can read here. She also cross-posted it on Bilerico for the same occasion. It put all the other posts to shame. Her April Fool's Day entry absolutely made the others pale in comparison. I can't wait for what she will cook up next year.



This morning when I opened my email, I saw that the organizers of the World Outgames 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark already sent me my official invitation letter. The World Outgames is an international event organized by the LGBT community for the LGBT community. The first Outgames was held in Montreal in 2006. The second one is happening this summer from July 25 to August 2 in Copenhagen and features three main tracks: sports, culture and conference.

I applied for Outreach support last year to be able to attend the Human Rights Conference and this early I am already excited about the keynote speakers they lined up. One of them is the world-famous Georgina Beyer who is the first openly transwoman elected as Mayor and Member of the New Zealand Parliament. You can find her official website here.

I hope I can make it to Denmark in July. It will cost an arm and a leg but I really want to go. The final countdown for the Outgames has already started and according to the Outgames website, less than 30 days is left before official registration closes. I actually caught Raquela Rios online today and told her about it. Now she, too, wants to attend the Outgames Conference. If you remember, Raquela is the Cebuana star of the movie The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela, dubbed by its makers as a Cinderella-story about a Filipina transsexual.



Raquela had good news for me. She told me that her movie, which has won a lot of awards (Best International Feature at the New York LGBT Film Festival, Teddy Award at the Berlin Film Festival, Jury Prize at Cinema City, Best Feature Fiction at the Zinegoak Film Festival in Spain and Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Cinemanila Film Festival here in the Philippines) and yet failed to get a local distributor, will be shown in Manila starting April 11 at Robinson's Galleria, a mall in Pasig City. Queen Raquela is a well-made movie. I hope that you will go out of your way to support this important film. For more information, you can visit the movie's official web site here.

Anyway, those are my two announcements for the day. I wish you all a good weekend spent hopefully in love and light. Be well!