PRESS RELEASE
Contact Person: Patrick Joseph Ty
Mobile: 09296411080 Telefax: 032-2555304 Email: inquiry.tlp@gmail.com
Cebu Celebrates LGBT Pride with Manila
CEBU CITY – The Visayas Pride Network, a network of individuals and organizations promoting the human rights of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender persons (LGBT) will celebrate the first PRIDE DAY in Cebu City on Dec. 6, 2008. The Parade starts at 4:00 pm with a route that will start and end at the Capitol Grounds. The parade will be held simultaneously with the Pride Parade in Manila.
The Pride Parade will be celebrated starting Dec. 1, 2008 to Dec. 6, 2008. The group’s first activity will be a Pride Press Conference on Dec. 1, 2008 followed with a campus and radio tour on Dec. 2 – 4, 2008. A Human Rights Forum on LGBT Rights will be conducted on Dec. 5, 2008 and the next day, Dec. 6, 2008, will be the Pride Parade. After the parade, a cultural program will follow. Their will also be a covenant signing on the Stop Discrimination Campaign and the awarding to the top three participants with the most colorful costume will also follow.
The Visayas Pride Network celebrates the Pride Day to promote awareness on gender based issues related to the LGBT community to the community in general and the LGBT community in particular. The celebration of human sexuality and diversity will also foster unity within the LGBT community and its supporters in supporting for the passage of the Anti-Discrimination Bill and the Anti-Discrimination ordinance at the Cebu City Council and the Cebu Provincial Board. Presently, the network is composed of five community based organizations, 3 student based organizations and a significant number of individuals.
Patrick Joseph Ty, the over-all coordinator of the Visayas Pride Network said that “the Pride Parade will be a colorful celebration of human sexuality and diversity. It will show to the public the harmonious relationship we can build together and how we, as members of the LGBT community, can be an important factor in nation building.” He mentioned that Pride Parade is a colorful protest to the human righst violation committed to persons like Jan Jan and other members of the LGBT whose rights were violated simply because of their gender or sexual orientation. Furthermore, he said that “it is time that we stop and end discrimination and start to recognize the human rights of the LGBT’s after all like heterosexual people, we are also humans. Thus we too have human rights.”