DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/29 March) – Some 250 LGBT and Gender Equality advocates across the Davao region are expected to participate in the first LGBT Pride March from Freedom Park to the People’s Park on Wednesday afternoon (June 1), to express solidarity with the global call to end gender discrimination and to push forward to the incoming Duterte administration an Anti-Discrimination legislative agenda for the entire country.
Davao City is home to President Rodrigo
Duterte, who was Vice Mayor and presiding officer of the City Council when it passed Ordinance 0417-12 or the “Anti-Discrimination Ordinance of Davao City” in December 2012.
The rainbow is one of several LGBT symbols. (Photo from the FB post of COPERS)
The ordinance seeks to protect the rights of minority groups, including the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender).
“As the Duterte admininistration takes the reins of power, the Davao LGBT community brings to the streets an Anti-Discrimination Legislative agenda through an LGBT Pride March to be participated by LGBT rights activists, Davao artists, and academicians,” Prof. Hadji Balajadia, Assistant Director of the Ateneo de Davao University’s Center of Psychological Extension and Research Services (COPERS), told MindaNews Sunday.
Balajadia, one of the prime movers in the passage of the Anti-Discrimination ordinance here said they aim to gather some 250 LGBT and Gender Equality advocates across the Davao region to join the march from Freedom Park at 4:30 p.m. to the People’s Park.
He said the LGBT Pride March is in keeping with the 17th UN Sustainable Development Goals on Gender Equality and the recognition and promotion of the Yogyakarta Principles on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Rights.
June is LGBT Pride Month in the United States. June is also the month where most Pride marches are held worldwide.
“If authentic democracy is to be realized in our lifetime, it is imperative for the LGBT to claim and assert their rights, celebrate their diversity and build allies for a conspiracy for inclusion, empowerment and equality. The Pride March on June 1 is a democratic space where you and I can start voicing for a truly just and gender-equal society, a Philippine society free from discrimination,” he said.
Dakila and the Ateneo de Davao University’s COPERS are among the organizers. (MindaNews)
