2010 Manila Pride March

Last 4 December 2010, the Transgender Lesbian Bisexual and Gay (TLBG) community in Manila concluded another historical Pride Parade. For the first time, the TLBG Pride March was sponsored by the local government of Quezon City. Of course, the girls were there and we decided to come in fiery and radical red.



We had two calls this year: AFFIRM THE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION and STOP DISCRIMINATION BASED ON GENDER IDENTITY AND EXPRESSION. We also brought back the red truck last year that we rented again out of our own pockets this year.



Our hardworking member Seanel Caparas (rightmost in the pic above) along with her best friend Princess Jimenez (leftmost in the pic above) decorated the truck and turned it into a parade float. I was so touched when I saw the truck. Seanel and Princess truly outdid themselves and I am so grateful to them up to now.

Once again, joining the march was a tiring but fulfilling experience. Every year, it just seems to get bigger and grander. I was so proud to see that many of the people organizing the march were the first-timers when I was the co-coordinator of  two years ago. I am glad that they kept the flame alive and served Task Force Pride Philippines this year. The TFP execom did a very good job this year and they deserve a big congrats!



At last I was able to get a picture taken with my best gay friend in the world, Rey Banag (see above). A week before, Rey sent me a "surprise" Christmas card which had a picture of him and his partner, JM. I cried when I saw the pic and fell in love with them all over again. They are one of the best gay couples I know and I love them both to pieces. I was so elated to receive their loving message with a beautiful picture of them to boot. Now I have their picture in my wallet and it can finally be said that yes I am a fag hag. I am a true-blooded girl who loves boys who like boys. And the pic with me and Rey is my favorite picture from the march.



During the program, I was surprised when one of the stage hands went up to me and said that Arnel Pineda, the front man of Journey just arrived. Arnel made every Filipino proud when he became Journey's lead singer around 3 years ago. It was such a treat for him to drop by and give a solidarity message to the LGBT community. And of course, it was great meeting him in person (see above)!



One of the highlights of the program that night was seeing old allies winning a special prize. Akbayan party, the partylist that originaly filed the Anti-Discrimination Bill (ADB) in Congress 10 years ago, attended this year's march with their usual huge contingent. The ADB seeks to penalize discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression but its passage has foundered since it was first filed 3 Congresses ago. Akbayan won Most Number of Participants in this year's parade. It was an honor to hand the award to Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros and Akbayan Chairperson Percival Cendaña (see pic above).



The best part of the night was meeting Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista again (see pic above). Mayor Bautista and I actually met 3 years ago when I was just a TFP volunteer and he was still the Vice-Mayor of Quezon City. We saw him in a restaurant and asked him to support the march which was going to be held in Manila then. He asked me to send in a letter to his office and I guess that gave him an idea to fully support the march in a bigger way in the future.

All in all, One Love was amazing. It was also heart-warming to see the media acknowledge the advocacy work of the transgender community. Many of the media write-ups and features on the March showed transwomen in the news. It beats me though why even if I kept saying LGBT during the program, most of the news agencies present called it the "gay pride parade" in the news the day after. I guess old habits die hard but at least now, they say LGBT as well and not only "gay and lesbian this" or "gay and lesbian" that, which is a good change.

Congratulations again to TFP. May this be the start of a long and good relationship between the annual LGBT Pride Parade and the Quezon City Government. We cannot wait for next year's Pride March!

Pre-conference close

Today was the last day of the pre-conference workshops. In the morning, I attended a workshop on working with governments (see pic above). The discussion was handled by Jack Byrne from New Zealand. We, the attendees, made up a small group of people interested in deepening links with government agencies back at our home countries. One of the larger-than-life participants was Roger (in black with a flower in her hair). Roger or Rog as she is fondly called is a proud fa-fa-fine.



During the morning break, I made sure to take a pic with Jolerina, from Namibia (see pic above). Jolerina was one of the people I went to the book launch with the night before and we just really hit it off well. She told me that Filipino soap operas are very popular in certain parts of Africa and she knew some soap operas that I did not even watch back home. It was pretty surreal and heart-warming at the same time. That Africans can appreciate our TV creations is something to be truly proud of.



After lunch, while on my way to the closing plenary room, one of the translators approached me to tell me that she liked my dress. It was a really sweet moment. I asked her if she knew transpeople in Barcelona and she said that it was her first time to meet some and that she was very impressed by all of them. For the workshops, we have 5 rooms. Each room is assigned two translators who take turns in the 2-hour workshop. We do appreciate how patient they were with all of us and how much they helped us each day. I just had to take a picture with them (see above).



During the break, Liza from Colombia who I have been having mini-conversations with since the pre-conference started and I finally got a chance to have our picture taken together--something that we have always mentioned that we wanted to do but never got around to doing so until today (see picture above).



In the afternoon we had the closing plenary (see above). People were very optimistic, energetic and livened up. Everyone was happy that the pre-conference went smoothly with no incident. Everyone was helpful, respectful and did their part to follow the house rules and keep the schedule on time.



At dinner, I had a chance to take a picture with (from L to R) Carla LaGata of TGEU, Lizethe from Spain (who we all call Señora Lizethe), a new girl from Kenya who had just arrived and a sistergirl from Australia who also just came in today. Now that the pre-conference is over, I am actually looking forward to two days of the main conference which will start tomorrow in downtown Barcelona. Stay tuned for that!

In Barcelona

I am here in Barcelona, Spain to represent STRAP and attend a historic week-long gathering of transactivists from around the world, the International Congress on Gender Identity and Human Rights. At the moment, it is still unclear to me what is the desired end-result of this conference. When it was being planned, I was told that it would be like a Yogyakarta Principles (YyP) meeting but with more focus on gender identity and gender expression issues. This is a great initiative as the YyP proves to be too general sometimes. But whatever comes out of this Barcelona meeting cannot be too specific either. For me, it will be very helpful to have a single document outlining the specific human rights claims of transpeople but it has to be flexible enough so it can be applicable to diverse localities. We are here to make that happen.



I flew to Barcelona with one of STRAP's founding members, Sass Sasot (see pic above). We were both surprised that our Cathay Pacific flight from Manila to Hong Kong was first-class but enjoyed it immensely as we were the only one in the cabin section. We thought it was a good sign. The flight was delayed, however, and when we got to Hong Kong our flight to Europe had already gone. We were supposed to take Air France that would take us from Hong Kong to Paris then Paris to Barcelona. In the end, Cathay Pacific put us on two flights, one of their own from Hong Kong to Frankfurt, then a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Barcelona. We flew 11 hours or so from Asia to Europe. Then from Germany to Spain, we flew another 2 hours.



When we arrived at our hotel, immediately we registered and settled down. On our way out to lunch at the hallway we met an activist from South Africa, Liesl Theron of Gender DynamiX. She was going to town and we decided to join her (see above). We took our first bus ride in Barcelona together.



We got to Plaza España, the city center, and took pictures. The above pic was taken at the steps of the Fira de Barcelona building.



Me posing in front of the giant fountain at Plaza España.



All three of us were feeling famished and ordered a humongous plate for three of arroz negro(see pic above). We downed it with sangria de cava, a drink made of sparkling wine and orange juice.



After lunch, we walked around the Avenguda Parallel (see pic above). After half an hour or so, I was already feeling tired. We waited for our bus, went back to the hotel, bought some water and cookies at the supermarket nearby and I went to bed. I missed dinner and now I am awake in the room at an awkward hour. I hope my body clock stabilizes today as we will be doing a lot in the next 5 days.



In the meantime, cheers to Barcelona and the upcoming conference! I am very happy to be in the company of my trans brothers and sisters from around the world. May we be able to achieve what we all came here to do.