EDITORS DESK
June is Pride Month in many countries, such as the Philippines, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where it started one year after the Stonewall riots, a spontaneous uprising of the gay community against a violent police raid of a gay club in New York City’s Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969.
“Pride” is said to have been derived from a slogan in the early New York gay rights marches, “Say it clear, say it loud. Gay is good, gay is proud.” It represents the goal of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community, which has since expanded to LGBTQIA+ to include Queer/Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual/Agender—to either acknowledge the pride of its members in their sexual or gender identity or to reverse the feelings of shame and guilt triggered or caused by their experiences of exclusion, rejection, discrimination, or even assault in society.
Although with the excess of rainbows, glitter, and unicorns associated with the parties and parades of the occasion, as well as the explosion of homoerotic genres, such as boys’ love (BL), on mainstream media, there appears to be more support and solidarity for LGBTQIA+ causes, Pride month has yet to fully achieve its goal.
In Brunei, for example, a penal code enacted only in 2019 now includes death by stoning for people found guilty of same-sex sexual activities. In Singapore, there is a law instated in 1938 under British rule, Section 377A, criminalizing sexual relations between consenting men, which, though not strictly enforced, has yet to be overturned. In Myanmar, under the Police Act 1945, according to the non-profit Human Dignity Trust, the gender expression of trans people may be subject to a maximum penalty of three months’ imprisonment.
In the Philippines, considered a gay-friendly country, it’s not what it seems. In a study published in 2018 by the UK-based Allied Academies in the Journal of Public Health Policy and Planning, it has been cited that “bullying and discrimination from families, communities, and schools” continue to be a problem, especially among LGBT students.
Harassment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, though included in the Child Protection Policy enacted by the Department of Education in 2012 and the Anti-Bullying Law ratified by Congress in 2013, is not the only problem. As Human Rights Watch, an international NGO headquartered in New York City, reported based on “interviews and group discussions conducted in 10 cities on the major Philippine islands of Luzon and the Visayas, equally discriminatory are seemingly harmless policies and practices in the learning environment that impose rigid gender rules on students through “gendered uniforms and dress codes, restrictions on hair length, gendered restrooms, classes and activities that differ for boys and girls, and close scrutiny of same-sex friendships and relationships.”
It has been 52 years since the first Gay Pride march in New York. The awareness of the plight of the LGBT community that this annual observance engenders may be in danger of being diluted by rainbows being splashed on logos or shirts or shoes.
While it does call for justice like a rainbow at the end of a storm, the last thing June Pride wants is a unicorn.