Bakla Ako, May Reklamo?

The 2009 Manila Pride March. December 5, 2009.

For more information, visit the Task Force Pride Website or join the Facebook Fan Page.

Have you pre-registered for the 2009 Manila Pride March? It’s easy -http://bit.ly/1gAvZc

The 2009 Manila Pride March. December 5, 2009.

For more information, visit the Task Force Pride Website or join the Facebook Fan Page.

Have you pre-registered for the 2009 Manila Pride March? It’s easy – http://bit.ly/1gAvZc

The 2009 Manila Pride March. December 5, 2009.

For more information, visit the Task Force Pride Website.

The “Day of Silence” will commence after the UP Pride March around the campus.  The march in the University of the Philippines in Diliman is to protest the discrimination, harassment and abuse  – in effect the silencing – faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and their allies in schools.

The Day of Silence, a project originally started by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) of America, will be adapted and will be held during school hours at UP Diliman. Over a hundred participants will be silent on June 30, 2009, wearing stickers and passing out statements that partly read: “Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I am participating in the Day of Silence, a youth movement protesting the harassment, prejudice, and  discrimination faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies in schools.

“The Day of Silence,” according to local organizer and UP Student Regent Charisse Bernadine Bañez, “is especially relevant to UP because “in Diliman, students are faced with organizational nightmares of the proposed ‘2009 Code of Student  Conduct’ not to mention the dictatorial and fascist tendencies of the Gloria Arroyo Administration with the passage of Con-Ass in the lower-house” Marcel Punongbayan of ProGAY UP Diliman hopes that the event will work towards ending some of the silence and hatred students face.

Present statistics found that more than 4 out of 5 LGBT students report verbal, sexual or physical harassment at school and 29% report missing at least a day of school in the past month out of fear for their personal safety. The Day of Silence is one way students and their allies are making anti-LGBT bullying, harassment and name-calling unacceptable in Philippine schools. About the Day of Silence The Day of Silence, a project of the General Assemble of Gender Advocates (GAGA), University of the Philippines Diliman Student Council –Gender Committee, Office of the Student Regent, STAND UP, GABRIELA UP-Diliman, and ProGAY & LesboND UP Diliman, is a campus wide, student-led event during which hundreds of college students take action to bring awareness to the bullying, name-calling, and harassment of lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender and ally (LGBTA) youth.

For more information contact Local Organizer: Marcel T. Punongbayan. (0906) 345-8626

So we’re nominated for the Rainbow Bloggers Philippines’ Rainbow Blog of the Week. Now on its fifth week, the RBP’s Rainbow Blog of the Week is “the most anticipated competition in the world of blogging parrots.”

This week is a fierce competition and I’m actually not expecting to win since I’m up against very prolific and well-known bloggers. There’s my friend The Bakla Review, The (HOT) Vegan Prince, and Lezfriendly. So I will not be campaigning and asking you to support Bakla Ako, May Reklamo, I’ll leave it up to you. Besides, I myself can’t even decide who to vote for. Charing.

One thing I can say though is that I’m quite happy with how the Rainbow Bloggers Philippines is turning out. Kudos to the original parrots who came up with this idea.

Also, the current influx of members and readers is a good sign that we can make it happen! I have high hopes that for this year’s Pride March, we will have a better (read: more people in the contingent) representation under the Rainbow Bloggers and Friends Banner!

Now that we have more members and more people know about us, we can definitely be there and join the Pride March in December!

For those of you who are interested, you can still volunteer to become a member of Task Force Pride (click here to view registration/volunteer form).

The 2nd General Assembly is set for Saturday, March 28, 2009 from 7PM to 9PM at BED Bar, Malate.  You can also bring your friends who are part of the LGBT Community or are LGBT Friendly who would like to help us plan for the 2009 Manila Pride March. To find out more about Task Force Pride, visit the official page here.

Technorati Tags: manila pride march 2009, rainbow bloggers philippines, Task Force Pride

If you haven’t yet add yourself to the database of Task Force Pride (TFP) now!
http://creator.zoho.com/tfpmanila/tfp/form-perma/Membership_Registration/

Technorati Tags: Task Force Pride Philippines, Manila Pride, Task Force Pride, Pride Parade Philippines

Welcome 2009 and welcome to a brand new year of kabaklaan here on “Bakla Ako, May Reklamo?”!

2008 was such a great year for the blog and we hope 2009 will be an equally good if not better year.

So let’s do a quick recap of what happened in 2008. Here are some highlights:

Early in the year, I launched the “Are You ‘A’ Gay?” video blog series, which turned out to be just a few episodes.  I will no longer promise to start a new series nor to continue the series, I will just post whenever I feel like it.  Besides, no one really watched the videos. Haha.  It was also in January when I got gaybar-devirginized as I, along with some friends, visited not one, not two, but three gay bars in Manila! And who can forget the Cabalen Trinoma incident?  I was one of the few people who got the chance to meet the infamous Anne from Cabalen! What an honor!

In February, I got to visit Batanes courtesy of Epson Philippines!  And I won a printer by winning  (I was first runner-up) the Epson in Batanes photo contest! I also got the chance to meet Christine Gambito aka HappySlip.  Thanks to the people of Yehey!, I was able to go up onstage and ask HappySlip a question face to face! Not satisfied with that kind of mileage, I also got the chance to be interviewed on video by Janette Toral for the Digital Filipino Club.  It was also during this month that I had the honor of meeting Danton Remoto as we, the FabCasters, recorded a very enlightening, educational, and fun podcast with him. Read the rest of this entry »

I am no longer a virgin.

Last weekend, I happily gave up my virginity and marched through the streets of Manila!  Yes, I am no longer a Pride March virgin.  And yes, I used to be.

Believe it or not, the 2008 Manila Pride March was the first for me.  I came out in 2005, but I did not really get the chance to join any Pride March at all.  Either I did not have the time to join or I did not want to join.

I did not want to join. I was scared of having my face plastered all over the news.  I was scared of what might come my way after the march.  I was scared that my friends of old would see me and judge me.

I did not have the time (or deliberately planned out-of-town trips to coincide with the Pride March schedule). I did not want to march under the sweltering heat of the sun.  I did not want my B Club shoes (Yes, chipangga ito!) to get all dirty and worn out.  I did not want to have sweat as an accessory.

I would sleep all afternoon till night and then wake up at about 1am then head to Malate. Bed.  That was Manila Pride for me.

Until last weekend.

Months before the 2008 Manila Pride March, I already decided that I would join and that nothing was gonna stop me from joining!  And so began my journey towards my Pride March devirginization.  Together with the Rainbow Bloggers Philippines, I planned the LGBT Bloggers Night at Red Box (thanks again, Red Box!).  And because there was an LGBT bloggers contingent at this year’s march, I knew that I had a place!

Enter: Rainbow Bloggers and Friends.

And so I went, marched, Read the rest of this entry »