New Year, New directions for Task Force Pride (TFP) Philippines

New Year, New directions for Task Force Pride (TFP) Philippines

Coming off/Right off the heels of the highly successful 2009 Manila Pride March last 5 December 2010, its official organizer the Task Force Pride (TFP) Philippines network is now gearing up for the 2010 preparations of the annual Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) Pride parade.

“We learned many lessons in organizing Pride last year so we can only hope to do better this year,” says TFP 2009 coordinator Great Ancheta. “Thirty-three organizations and more or less 800 individuals came together to show their pride as LGBTs and in support of the LGBT cause in 2009. We plan to surpass that in 2010,” he adds.

To do so members of the TFP 2009 Executive Committee (ExeCom) are proposing to hold a longer celebration of LGBT Pride that can stretch anywhere from a month to half a year depending on the number of organizations committed to work with TFP including individual volunteers and sponsors.

“We are envisioning a Pride Festival that will include aside from the annual march, concerts, dance parties, art exhibitions, pageants, a film festival, a human rights conference and separate nights celebrating the LGB & T communities in the Philippines for the 2010 Manila Pride celebrations,” says Naomi Fontanos, TFP 2009 head of Public Relations. “Aside from that, we also want to bring the message of LGBT Pride nationwide and hold simultaneous Pride Marches in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Hopefully we will attract more international participants, particularly human rights advocates and Pride organizers from Asia and the Pacific this year,” she further reveals.

TFP Philippines is a network of LGBT and LGBT-supportive groups and individuals who seek to promote positive visibility for the LGBT community. In 2009 its organizing members included Bed Malate, Gay, Transgender and Bisexual Advocates for Youth (GABAY), Lesbian Advocates Philippines (LeAP), Metropolitan Community Church Quezon City (MCCQC), Outragemag.com, Single Guys Online (SGO) PH, and Society of Transsexual Women of the Philippines (STRAP). Founded in 1999, it is the official organizing network of the annual LGBT Pride Parade in Manila.

“We would like to thank all of our majors sponsors last year especially EZ Lubricating Jelly and Frenzy Condoms. Without them, the 2009 Manila Pride March would not have been possible. But more importantly we would like to thank all the people who worked hard and joined the Pride celebrations from the Parade and Program to the Pageant and Party. They are the ones who truly give life to LGBT Pride in Manila every year,” according to Ancheta. The 2009 Manila Pride March was supported and attended by diverse groups including the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHRP), women’s groups, members of academe, media, NGOs, partylist organizations and various human rights advocacy groups from around the Philippines and Southeast Asia.