Waving rainbow flags waving and raising their fists, hundreds of members of the LGBTQ+ community, allies, and progressive groups marched at the Stonewall Philippines Pride March held on Recto Avenue, Manila on June 26. They pushed through police lines to assert their right to hold their program at Mendiola.

Led by the national democratic LGBTQ+ group Bahaghari, formations celebrating Pride Month formed Stonewall Philippines. The new organization formally declared its annual leadership of militant activities and marches for Pride every June.

Stonewall Philippines honors and lives out the legacy of the first Pride March in the Philippines and in Asia—Stonewall Manila, which was launched on June 26, 1994 in Quezon City. The Progressive Organization of Gays in the Philippines (ProGay), together with the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), led the militant march and sparked decades of LGBTQ+ struggle.

Back then, they demanded an end to discrimination against LGBTQ+ people and for the promotion of the sector’s rights, and also opposed the burdensome Value Added Tax (VAT), rising oil and commodity prices, and exposed the US-Ramos regime’s anti-people policies.

Thirty-one years later, the sector now calls for the passage of the SOGIE Bill, living wages, employment, genuine land reform and national industrialization, and an independent foreign policy, as well as freedom for Palestine and other nations oppressed by the US. They paid tribute to the martyrs of the LGBTQ+ sector who served as organizers and activists, such as Alex Dolorosa, Chad Booc, Ryan Hubilla, Ali Macalintal, and many others.

Participate in the national democratic revolution

The Makabayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan (Makibaka) expressed solidarity and tribute to the LGBTQ+ sector in celebrating Pride in June. The group urged the sector to unite and directly participate in the national-democratic revolution, which will truly and ultimately pave the way for the complete liberation of LGBTQ+ people alongside the oppressed and exploited masses.

In this regard, the group urged vigilance against sabotage and deception by imperialism and all reactionary forces against the LGBTQ+ struggle and Pride Month celebrations. According to Makibaka, imperialism distorts the celebration to divert LGBTQ+ people from the struggle against discrimination, national oppression, and exploitation.

Large corporations and politicians exploit the Pride celebration. While they and imperialist US hold festive Pride events, they continue to enforce economic and political laws and policies that further push LGBTQ+ people of the toiling masses deeper into the mire of unemployment or lack of decent jobs, driving them into anti-social activities to survive.

“Rainbow washing” or “rainbow capitalism” is one manifestation of this. It means corporations appropriate the LGBTQ+ sector’s symbols and language to boost their profits.

The group also called on Filipino LGBTQ+ people to be critical of the US imperialism’s cultural offensive on the masses’ minds and behaviors. Imperialism cultivates bourgeois-decadent culture, such as false standards of beauty and other standards of being LGBTQ+. It also emphasizes individualism and hypersexuality.

Amid these imperialist attempts, Makibaka challenged LGBTQ+ sector members to take the path of selfless sacrifice of time and life for the national democratic revolution, an aspiration that goes beyond themselves.

We must emulate the example of the martyred Red commanders and fighters of the New People’s Army, including Val Mante (Ka Richard), Daniel Imperial, Wanda Gumban (Ka Waquin), Kevin Castro (Ka Facio), Jo Lapira (Ka Ella), Ciela Pacaldo (Ka Alena), Jethro Isaac Ferrer (Ka Pascual), Kal Peralta (Ka Rekka), Queenie Daraman (Ka Kira), Dee Supelanas (Ka Dahlia), and many others. We must honor their sacrifice of strength, intelligence, courage, and life for the masses and various fields of revolutionary work.