pride
Manila, 22 June—One of my favorite moments from last year was attending the Pride March at the Marikina Sports Center. Touted the biggest Pride March in Southeast Asia, it boasted a 25,000-strong attendance despite that afternoon’s rainshowers. It was amazing.
I’ve been out for close to two decades, and you’d probably expect most LGBT members churned out by the State University to be more predisposed to marches, but last year’s participation at the March was actually just my second. I used to work Saturdays, so the Saturday marches sadly did not fit into my schedule. But when I moved out of the newspaper, my weekends opened up, and suddenly I had the opportunity to join Things That Happened on Regular Weekends. That’s actually how I found myself in the middle of Asia’s oldest Pride March.
Make no mistake: The Parade is such a party. I mean it when I say nobody throws a party like the community. And I guess that’s what draws people to it the most, particularly the young—that feeling of being in your skin, celebrating with a horde of people who are also in their respective skins. Not gonna lie, it’s kind of magical.
Add that to the fantastic job the Pride’s comms team is doing on social media, then it’s really no surprise that a significant chunk of the Pride Parade’s attendance are young people who are tuned in so intensely to socmed, and who are using these channels to find community and validation and love and information.
A part of me envies them. That part of me remembers how hard it was to find media that reflected me and the person I was becoming, much less find a community in a time of prepaid internet and dial-up modems. There was a time one had to squint for subtext. I remember staying up all night to download Willow/Tara clips redacted from the local screening of some Buffy episodes. In wmv, no less.
I could go on about how early to mid 00’s fandom shepherded me through some early reckonings—I wouldn’t have had it any other way. If I were young now, I would have shied away just the same from the local Pride scene’s inherent out-thereness—deep inside, I still prefer to take most of my important journeys by myself first, poking in the dark quietly, trying to piece things together on my own.
Just the other day, some colleagues and I talked about how Pride is a journey in the context of a colleague’s newly out nephew wanting to join the Pride March, and how she thought they were young and unprepared for it. The nephew is a new senior high school graduate, just about to go into college, but already 18.
This situation gave me pause. I was 18, too, when I first realized I was lesbian, but as this was before K to 12, this meant that I was already in college. The ‘college’ part was the crux of my colleague’s worry; she only wanted them to meet a more diverse set of people before diving head first into the Pride March. I encouraged her to explore this more with them, and that the mere fact that they were open to this conversation in the first place is such a bright spot. I hope they eventually come to an agreeable compromise by the time the June 30 march comes around.
I’m pretty sure I’m not conveying properly the merits of this argument, but when I listened to her heartfelt concerns, I ended up agreeing with her. At least, in my own experience, participating in the march and getting the most out of it meant being prepared for it. I took a while to get to that part of my own journey, but I got there anyway. I realized there’s so much more to this than just being comfortable in your skin, or finding a partner. It’s a long drawn fight, and we have to keep learning, keep training, so we can help the community win.
Speaking of helping the community: MM Pride Org’s fundraiser is still ongoing, and it is amazing.
And if you ever want fantastic stickers to go with your donation, you could always hit us up—we’re donating proceeds until the very end of the campaign. We’ve already done the first tranche, and we’re looking forward to making the last one before June 30th! Thank you to everyone who have supported us thus far!
Some gay recs
This podcast talks about fix-it fanfiction and drops a favorite The 100 work. Have a guess?
This is a heartwarming cartoon about drawing horses. No really. It is.
You need to calm down.
See you at Pride!!!!
Xo,
K