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Published: July 22nd 2008
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On Sunday I got to participate in one of the most fun and entertaining activities I have attended since arriving. I got to be in the city's Gay Pride Parade!! But this was no normal Pride, this Sunday we celebrated the first annual Baguio Gay Pride Parade.
The preparation for this year's Pride activities started about three weeks ago. Some of my coworkers from the activist circles, who are both indigenous activists and GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans-gendered) activists, convened a meeting in order to bring together all of the GLBT groups in the city. Though all of the gays and lesbians I know in Baguio are part of different peoples organizations and organize as GLBT in order to forward GLBT issues, there are numerous GLBT groups in the city who organize for other reasons, yet who should be included in the Pride activities. And so, at the beginning of July the GLBT activists, the Baguio City hair dressers, the men's stripe club dancers and customers, the Thunderbirds (a social group for lesbians), the Philippine delegation to the International Out Games (which were apparently held in Montreal last year), the cross dressing, lip syncing performers, friends family members and advocates
for GLBT rights came together to form the Baguio Pride Network. The purpose of this network was to pull together all of the groups working in their very different ways towards the social acceptance of the city's GLBT population. Their first task was to organize the first ever city wide Pride activity.
I was asked by my coworkers ages ago if I would participate in the parade. As a human rights advocate, and as a strong supporter of GLBT acceptance, respect and rights, I was absolutely ready to be in the parade. Besides, this would be my only chance, not being a lesbian, to be in a Pride Parade AND my only chance to wear a costume this year, since Halloween is celebrated as a religious holiday here. The theme of the parade was "Come as you Wish you Were"... and since I am not a man who wishes he were a women, or a women who wishes she was a man, I decided to attend the parade dressed as a princess. I mean, honestly, what girl doesn't wish she was a princess.
Our coworkers in the Baguio Pride Network asked all of the other people in the
activist network to participate in the parade as well. It is only appropriate, since our entire network promotes the respects of all peoples human rights, and especially since the GLBT activists always attend all of the other sectors activities, for the rest of the network to come to the parade. Although to be honest, in this part of the country, where catholic conservatism collides with indigenous machoism I wasn't really expect many of our other coworkers to attend. But I was pleasantly surprised Sunday morning at the parade site to see numerous familiar faces from the indigenous peoples organization, the women's group, the youth and students and the cultural group, among others. Though smaller then the mobilizations I attended in, the Gay Pride Parade was by far the most colorful yet. And I fit right in, wearing a bejeweled, bubblegum pink prom dress I rented fot the occasion and a sparkling tiara. I was not the only person who took the opportunity to dress up, I marched down session amongst giant spiders, angels, pirates, peacocks and cowboys.
Though it had been raining heavily, God shined on us for the parade, and the we had the most beautiful sunny day
for our parade. We also ended up with a giant crowd. Though I doubt many of the people had come specifically to watch our parade, there was a large crowd downtown when we started. Intrigued by the sounds of the gongs, the costumes, the rally calls and the rainbow colored signs many of the shoppers and church goers stopped to watch. I was positioned close to the back of the parade, away from many of the other people in costume. I was also one of only three white people at the event. So I got a lot of attention. As I sashayed down the street waving my crepe paper rainbow flag I was filmed by the local media, photographed by media, activists and locals alike and waved at incessantly. I felt a bit like Miss Baguio. Although I was not the lady being driven in the back of the truck; the final, and most prestigious, spot in the parade was held by Miss Gay City Tavern (local bar owned by a lesbian who is very supportive to the Baguio Pride Network) 2007 and her first runner up. The lovely ladies stole the show, and were by far the most beautiful
transvestites I have ever seen in my life.
That is not to say that I did not get a lot of attention. When the parade ended and we settled into the local park to hold our Pride program I was mobbed with friends entertained I had dressed up and local little kids shocked and entertained to see a princess in their midst. I had a ball playing photo shot with all of my friends, and even more fun taking pictures with the little kids whose parents approached me and asked if their kids could get their picture taken with the princess. I, of course, couldn't say no, after all I was dressed like Barbie. And I was really enjoying feeling like the woman who dresses like Cindercella and walks around Dinsey Land taking pictures with little kids. By the time the program started I was feeling really hyper, and was luckily rewarded with not just the political speeches that are rot at mobilizations here, but also pattongs and lip syncing presentations that spoke to the mixed group.
Later in the day, after our free lunch at the City Tavern (thanks again to our wonderful and generous patrona), we
were presented with more hilarious and entertaining songs and dances. We even crowned a Miss. Baguio Pride (a gay men) and a Mr. Baguio Pride (from the lesbians). I, unfortunately, was not allowed to participate in either contest, being a women who is comfortable being a women, and being a women who is not secretly a man. But I got to help my boss judge and had a wonderful time watching them all strut their stuff. Our MC was the same Miss Gay City Tavern 2007 and she presided over the show regally, but also with what I suspect was a very dirty humor. It is times like this that I really miss being able to speak the language, because I would have loved to know what she was saying to make the Mr. Miss. contestants and the Miss. Mr. contestants blush.
By 4pm, after six hours of prancing around in my giant princess dress, which I of course left on all day, even when most other people changed out of their costumes, I headed home, exhausted. It was a wild and wonderful day full of sun and celebration. I had talked to numerous people about legalized same sex
marriage in Canada, and about the United Church of Canada's role in the struggle for GLBT rights. I was proud to be there as a representative of both. I was also very proud to have been able to participate in this historical event in the struggle for GLBT rights in Baguio, and in the Philippines. Like all good Gay Pride Parades should be, it was militant and super fun and I can't wait to see the pictures from next years event, which, after this success Pride, I am sure, will be even bigger, brighter, more militant and more fun.
If you want to see more pictures from this year's Pride activities, including our parade, check out the Baguio Pride Network at: http://profiles.friendster.com/73805411.
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Edie
non-member comment
Princess
And here I thought Aunt Linda was the princess of the family....we now have a new Princess Linda, look out!!! Looks like it was a lot of fun. Aunt Edie