A show of force: Why it’s still important to show up at Pride
- Karl de Leon
- Jul 25
- 9 min read
June 28, 2025. The last weekend for this year’s Pride Month. At that point, several events and gatherings have already been held for Pride. At the center of all these is Love Laban 3 which was held in UP Diliman. Attended by various companies, embassies, brands, collectives, and other organizations, it was, by organizer estimates, the biggest pride event in Asia.
Now, I must confess. I came into Love Laban with a pair of cynical, doubtful eyes. With eyes that have seen it all, and is now wary of anything that presents itself as good. I prejudged it as being heavily commercialized and a mere event for corporate DEI groups to participate in for documentation.
But this was not without any basis. Just last year, on its second iteration, organizers of the event drew flak for inviting the US Embassy to speak about Pride just four years after Joseph Pemberton’s acquittal for the murder of our trans sister Jennifer Laude in 2014.
“The Filipino people deserve to know that the US is now funneling money into Pride festivities through various institutions and corporations worldwide – not to advance LGBTQ+ rights, but to infiltrate the US’ crimes, and assert hegemony in the realm of the culture”, said Bahaghari Philippines in an Instagram post. “Until there is justice for Jennifer Laude, until the Philippines is free from US domination and allowed to blossom and pursue national development, it will remain clear that the US is no ally to the LGTBQ+ community.”
It also seemed to have turned into a music fest. From the hundreds of fans of the Filipino girl group BINI, a video surfaced where one of them complained about how they came to watch the group perform but were disappointed that they did not get to do so due to inclement weather. This, while actual members of the community were no longer allowed to enter the premises as the venue reached full capacity.
And yet we are in its third year, in a venue big enough to accommodate 407,000 attendees. I couldn’t help but wonder, what is Pride now? A celebration? A protest? A music fest? A job fair?
I took the liberty to ask attendees and fellow members of the community what they think current state of Pride is.
To exist is a protest and a celebration
I approached the venue just as the march was about to start. I joined a group from the Commission on Human Rights, one of the many organizations that attended the event. I was greeted by Paulo, (27, Gay, Nonbinary) who accompanied me along with his friend Leo, (27, Fluid, Nonbinary) to the march. Paulo and I met in person for the first time that day, but we have been friends on Facebook for God knows how long. Among those who have happened to join the group was Carl (23, Gay) who attended for the first time.
So is Pride becoming more of a celebration or is it still holding true to its origins of being a protest? “It’s a celebration of who we are, and it’s a celebration of our freedom,” says Carl.
Paulo, on the other hand, says Pride is inherently a protest. “For me yung pagiging pride[ful] of who you are is in itself a protest against the system na meron tayo sa society na very heteronormative. To be proud of who you are is already a protest. Pero of course we have to move beyond that, we have to intersect with other issues. Kasi ang liberation ng isang queer individual is more than just personal”, says Paulo.
Leo says, “I don't think it’s mutually exclusive. You don't have to like, box yourself into one. There was a time that in history na medyo madugo yung mga ganitong events, but now we get to celebrate.”
Okay, sure. Maybe it could be both. But is the essence still here, even in the midst of these corporations seemingly turning it into a job fair? Is it still an event for the queers?
When asked about this, Leo said, “I don't think it’s just performative that people are here just parading, marching – we are all here for something. We want to see change… You see a lot of organizations here… [and] we just don’t know [but] a lot of them are doing the groundwork… working with local governments, advocat[ing] for ordinances, for anti-discrimination policies to protect, you know, the LGBT, and other sectors as well.”
In the 2025 Hiring, Compensation & Benefits Report published by Jobstreet by SEEK, it was reported that 63% of organizations in the Philippines currently adopt initiatives to promote workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) which include policies to address workplace discrimination and harassment, resource groups and affinity networks, and unconscious bias trainings.
“It’s a show of force and numbers”, says Leo.
And he’s right. Regardless of whether one feels it’s a protest or a celebration, it’s a show of force.
As we walked along C.P. Garcia, I saw a few children waving their pride flags at us. Past them were shirtless titos and daster-clad titas warmly cheering us on. A protest or a celebration? Maybe it’s both. But with this sight, with this imagery of people on the sidelines celebrating with us, the show of force is for us to tell each other that we’re not alone.
Showing up, showing out
It’s so easy to be disillusioned by the glitz and glam that Pride now has. It’s almost as commercialized as Christmas now. Every June, a company on LinkedIn changes the color of its logos to rainbow colors (yay, gay!). In these events, brands would set up stalls to sell their stuff, invite queer influencers to promote a deodorant, a drink, a condom, or whatever else. Of course, I understand that it takes a lot of sponsors to mount an event as big as this one – but come on, a booth for an ad agency? Werk, I guess.
Funnily though, I had the opportunity to talk to one of the influencers present at Love Laban. Martin Chua, 30, was in the middle of promoting a coffee drink when I first saw him. What he said about the entire experience added more layers as to why we must continue to show up to Pride anyway.
“We have a long way to go,” says Martin, “But at the same time we’ve come a long way…and I'm so happy na it seems like every year mukhang dumadami yung mga sumsasama, dumadami yung mga allies and laking tulong na rin ng pagpa-Pride natin every year “
Martin was one of the cast members of Sparks Camp Season 2, a show that started a lot of discourse in the gay community especially with regards to representation. Martin now continues as a social media influencer.
Reflecting on his journey, Martin says, “Honestly, you don't have to be a content creator and influencer to make a difference. As long as you continue to be yourself, be gay, be a lesbian, be bisexual, be whatever you are and show to the world that you matter and you need space and you take up space, malaking impact na yun”
I immediately recall the image of the children who have been waving little Pride flags at us at the march. I wonder and think to myself – how many of these kids will grow up queer? How many kids will look for a safe space? I sure hope that once they do, they know they have a community of queers waiting for them to join in.
“As long as kahit isang tao lang makakita sayo and ma-influence mo sila to be themselves, tuloy tuloy na ang ripple up because our show of force is a message to people that we are here and we are here to stay for the people who want to join in.
Long way to go
But how far exactly have we come from when the first marches started? On June 26, 2025, Stonewall Manila, the organization known to have held the first ever Pride March in the Philippines back in 1994 held their own march just two days prior, but were met with police clad with riot gear, preventing them from marching towards the Mendiola Peace Arch. At Love Laban, riot gear was also present, but they were all laid down by a wall. How is this Pride so different from the one held earlier?
Yes, Love Laban was fully backed by the local government of Quezon City, which we are grateful for. But outside of this event, calls for equality and inclusion not just for the LGBT+ community but also for other marginalized sectors will be met by such brute force and disdain. Just recently, prominent members of the community such as Ricky Reyes and Renee Salud were applauded by bigots on the internet after expressing in an interview that it’s already enough that members of the community are tolerated, and that the fight for same-sex unions is going “overboard”. Even the community itself isn’t as united as we think.
Pride is not only about a show of force for the acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community. We show up to also call for the rights of the other disenfranchised minority groups. “Some LGBTQ+ members see it as hindi na dapat ipaglaban kasi nare-receive naman nila yung sa tingin nilang right nila. But I think that even though you’re having privileges and you’re receiving your rights… you should still fight for [other] minority groups... such as Indigenous groups in the Philippines… yung mga manggawa… yung mga jeepney drivers,” says Kai (22).
“The problem with some gays [is that] they asked too much. Masyadong entitled”, says Salud in the said interview.
“Tolerance ba talaga itong lahat nang ito? Hindi ba false tolerance?” says vlogger and host AC Soriano in their recent vlog. “Bakit hindi po tayo magnais ng mas rurok pa? Yung tipong equal na tayong lahat, na walang naiiwan sa laylayan?”
The video was in response to the mixed reaction that AC drew after clapping back at Reyes and Salud. While some found the tweet funny, some also saw it as disrespectful to the said “icons”.
AC challenges the tolerance that the two claimed the community enjoys with the recent death of Kierra Apostol. “Sa tingin niyo po ba na-tolerate ng mga killers ni Kierra itong si Kierra? Kasi kung oo, edi sana ho buhay pa po yung bata.” says AC.
On June 23, reports of the killing of two trans women surfaced. Former KARAPATAN SOCKSARGEN deputy secretary general Ali Macalintal was killed by an unknown suspect at an acupuncture clinic in General Santos City and Kierra Apostol, a student of Cagayan State University, was found lifeless along Cagayan River.
Zeno (17, Gay, Transman) recalls this in our conversation, and says that while we have made some progress, there are still issues when it comes to visibility of the trans community. “It’s still not cover[ed] sa news”, says Zeno, “Minsan po kasi nagmumukhang accepted na po tayo pero in reality tolerated pa lang po tayo in the Philippines. And that is not enough.”
Indeed, while we have had initiatives to promote diversity in the workplace and initiatives like the Right to Care Card that allows LGBTQIA+ couples to make medical decisions on behalf of their partners, we have only begun to see a glimpse of the space that we deserve to take.
In the distance, I hear a group chanting ‘No Pride in Genocide, Free Free Palestine’.
I came into the event with a pair of cynical eyes, with eyes that have the wariness of someone who has seen it all. But with these conversations that I have had about how much this means to them, I would like to think that Pride has the reach that it has now because maybe more and more people are seeing the value in what we do.
Yes, so much could still be said about the commercialization of Pride and whether or not we are still holding true to its essence. But this is exactly why it’s all the more important that we continue to show up to remind people what it’s about.
Pride continues because it is intersectional. That it is never just about our feelings, not just with our own selves in mind. We celebrate the community and how far we’ve come. But we also continue to march for the disenfranchised. For young trans girls like Kierra, for Palestinians, for the queer activists we’ve lost along the way. We do a show of force for the kids watching us on the sidelines; because we believe that if they see us, then maybe they would not have to grow up afraid of being queer. We march on for those who have come before us, and carry their dream of a better, freer future for us.
Comments