Pride month has just concluded and more than 70,000 people joined this year’s Metro Manila Pride March in Marikina Sports Center. Despite the large number of attendees, members of the LGBTQ+ community and its allies, there were hecklers who went and did nothing but spread hate and judgment, using Bible to preach against the community instead of showing love and compassion.
Ironically, these people are the ones who claim to be religious and godlike. For someone who grew up in a Christian environment, a community that deems everything that comes with homosexuality as immoral, I understand where they are coming from. But the way they impose belief that oppresses the community is what I think conflicts to what they are claiming to be.
This is one reason why I never fully came out to the people around me, to the people who are close to me. Despite the love and acceptance I have gotten from a very few people who have seen me in drag – blocked and newly painted eyebrows, fake long lashes, and overdrawn lips – I’m still afraid if the reaction I will get from the people who raised me to be a believer is the same as those who appreciated my other persona or as those who went to the pride march and condemned the people who are fighting for their rights, our rights.
One may argue that I am wrong and the path I am walking into is a contradiction to the beliefs I was raised in, to what I still believe in. But, what I need, what everyone in the community need, is not condemnation. Love, understanding and respect and if not too much to ask, acceptance – just like other religious groups showed who celebrated Pride with open hearts and minds. Yes, they were even apologizing for what those hecklers were doing.
It is not for anyone, in this case, the hecklers who claim to be believers, to decide for the members of the community to believe in what they stand for. I think that instead of shoving your faith down LGBTQ+’s throats, why not let them see it in you?
Like what Miss Universe Catriona Gray said in an Instagram post, “Religion is never an excuse to hate, put down, or act indifferent to the suffering of others. I believe God is love, and I will treat everyone – no matter who they are – to best of my ability, with love.”
An oppressive belief system is one of the many reasons why we have Pride. It is more than just dressing in rainbow colors and waving the flags that represent the community. It is not just a celebration and a parade but most importantly, it is a protest. A protest to #ResistTogether against all forms of oppression of not just the LGBTQ+ community but of all other minorities. Pride month may have ended but it doesn’t mean that the fight is over because Pride is all year round. It is a continuing fight for equality and human right. ( DA / Palawan Daily News