This year’s Pride PH Festival tragically morphed into the antithesis of its original purpose—a celebration of progress turned into a stark reminder that the fight is far from over.
Since its inception in 2022, thousands upon thousands have flocked to Quezon City for the vibrant demonstration of LGBTQ+ pride. What began as a gathering of 25,000 in its first year ballooned to over 200,000 this year. While this year’s iteration touts itself to be the “biggest Pride in Asia,” this surge in attendance is not a cause for celebration. It does not reflect a burgeoning queer and proud community but rather a deluge of cisgender heterosexuals who came not as allies but as mere concertgoers.
Although the Pride PH Festival on June 22 showcased LGBTQ+-run businesses and honored the essence of Pride with afternoon protests, these efforts were ultimately overshadowed by the sheer number of straight people who came for Pride Night, a concert headlined by today’s biggest queer icons like Marina Summers and Vice Ganda, though it was the other popular acts such as Ben&Ben, Cup of Joe, and BINI that drew the massive crowd.
The community wanted to celebrate LGBTQ+ acceptance and remonstrate for their legal rights, but many bemoaned that it was not the rain that diluted the festival’s true spirit. Instead, hostile behavior and loud brickbats, like “Ang daming bakla!” from people who were only there to see their idols, turned it into a spectacle rather than a sanctuary.
(There are so many gay people!)
Let’s be clear: the event was not exclusively for “the gays.” But allowing those who do not even share the advocacy to dominate a space that was meant for the LGBTQ+ community defeats the purpose of the event. Pride should be a haven, a space to celebrate their identities without shame and fight for their rights without fear. Instead, it was hijacked by those who were only seeking entertainment without any intention to support the cause, stripping away the sense of belonging and safety vital to a gathering of the community.
Other people see no issue with this. They argue that everyone, and by extension, homophobic individuals, should be welcomed in spaces like this because gatekeeping is the opposite of being inclusive. Maybe they believe that by immersing homophobes in company far from their own beliefs, they can be changed by the experience and finally accept queer people simply because they saw what it was like to be with them.
However, this perspective is simply naive. To aim to be inclusive with everyone, even those who wouldn’t reciprocate this open-minded approach to people, will inevitably lead to making things worse off. It ignores a fundamental truth: that inclusivity does not always mean unconditional tolerance.
Tolerance in the first place must have limits. Karl Popper’s Paradox of Intolerance warns that if a society is tolerant without limit, the intolerant will flourish, and the community’s ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed. Tolerance is when one is permissive to something undesirable, often by way of being passive or neglectful to prevent it.
Most thought experiments for this concept cite Germany’s attempt to appease Adolf Hitler, despite his fascist and exclusionary beliefs, as an example. By tolerating someone who rejected rational arguments and was committed to violence, the Nazi Party evolved from a small faction to the dominant governing dogma that ultimately led to genocide.
Simply, misunderstanding tolerance breeds subjugation.
The LGBTQ+ people already face disproportionate violence. The Williams Institute, the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law’s public policy research institute on sexual orientation and gender issues, found in 2022 that queer people are nine times more likely than non-LGBTQ+ people to be victims of violent hate crimes. While we fight for our place in society, we need to be reminded that we do not need to be indiscriminate to be inclusive. True freedom entails agreeing on fundamental values and rejecting harmful narratives, such as those that justify persecution based on sexual orientation, because those undrawn lines are where open, inclusive, and democratic societies die.
Freedom of speech and thought is integral to an inclusive society, but extremists use it as permission to spew hate speech and promote dangerous agendas. They run with it and expect acceptance for their dubious, immoral, and in this specific discourse, exclusionary beliefs.
Pride events are open to everyone, not just the LGBTQ+ community but also to allies who support our rights, individuals exploring their identity, and those with open minds. However, it’s crucial to establish parameters to ensure these spaces remain safe and truly inclusive. The world is already made for and by heterosexuals. The queer community needs these safe spaces—and protect them—where they can feel welcomed and respected, where they are not othered. In our pursuit of acceptance, let’s remember that boundaries are essential. Pride, a sanctuary, must remain one.
This article was published in The LaSallian‘s June 2024 issue. To read more, visit bit.ly/TLSJune2024.
