The 2017 Metro Manila Pride March - Humanist Alliance Philippines International

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The 2017 Metro Manila Pride March

HAPI Admin
July 1, 2017

Considered the biggest and most attended pride event in the Philippines with over 7,500 participants, the Metro Manila Pride March was held in the afternoon of June 24, 2017, beginning and ending in Plaza De Los Alcaldes, Marikina.

“HERE TOGETHER”

was the theme and rallying cry for this year’s Metro Manila Pride March. According to participants, it was the time to celebrate each other and humanity’s limitless capacity for love and acceptance. A time to tell the nation that despite the differences embodied by the LGBTQIA+ community, these differences should not divide humans and that, LGBTQIA+ or not, humans should and will always be for each other, for equality, for love and for pride.

Several religious hate groups protest the march by advocating to strip LGBTQA+ members’ of their natural born human rights and choice.

“The Pride March is a space for people who do not have that kind of acceptance in the home. They can come here among strangers, among people they don’t know and who you might never see again…and you feel safe and you feel like you’re home. That’s the reason why we still need it,” -Pride March coordinators Nicky Castillo said in a GMA 7 interview.

“We celebrate Pride this week remembering that the issues we marched for decades ago are the same issues now. We hear of kids getting bullied in school, of trans-people refused of employment, of gay people heckled on the streets.” – Sen. Risa Hontiveros

In support of the struggle for human rights equality, The Humanist Alliance Philippines, International (HAPI) joined the Filipino Freethinkers (FF), Atheist Republic Metro Manila Consulate (ARMMC), the Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society (PATAS) and around 1,700 various other secular organizations in attending the event to show solidarity with their fellow human beings in the LGBTQIA+ community.

Humanism is a rational, naturalistic worldview that trusts the scientific method as the most reliable route to truth and encourages a moral and ethical life based on logic, reason and compassion. Humanism, as a philosophy, campaigns for equality and diversity, including, and not limited to, sexual orientation and identity. At its core, it encourages respect for all human beings, no matter their sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression.