Baduy Pride Has Got Your Back!

Here's Rocky and Tobie of Baduy Pride sharing our support for GLAAD's Got Your Back campaign to show support for the LGBT community. Feel free to show some LGBT love as well by taking a photo with the Got Your Back image or even just signing the pledge to show your support! We'd really appreciate it!

If You Support LGBT Rights, Then MARCH!

This Saturday, December 7, 2013, is this year's annual Metro Manila Pride March. Despite some confusing cancellations, the Pride March is still pushing through, and this is definitely a good thing.

Tobie and I will definitely be marching again this year given how important this one activity is. Beyond any internal politics or differences in opinion, the Pride March has always represented the importance of the LGBT struggle for equal rights in the country. And we still have a long way to go.

So once again, this is a call to friends and like-minded citizens who believe in the LGBT cause. Whether you're straight or gay or somewhere in-between, the Pride March is open to everyone who wants equal rights for the LGBT community. The Pride March is a way to truly show support for your LGBT friends. And you definitely don't need to be LGBT to participate.

And I sincerely hope to see more of my straight friends join us on Saturday. It would mean so much to Tobie and me if you'd take some time out to show support. It's the least you folks could do. ;-)

See you all on Saturday!

The First Year (Redux)

Today is November 17, or as we like to call it November 2 cubed + 3 squared. This marks our first year back together as a couple and it has been quite a grand ride.

It's hard to really celebrate anything these days given the recent devastation brought about by Typhoon Yolanda and so I figured that the best thing to do is to put that splurge money to good use. So instead of buying some crazy geeky gift for Tobie this year, I opted to donate that money to some of the relief groups who are trying to help out.

Now I first met Tobie in person on February 12, 2009 - an "event" that we know to be NetRunner Night. That means that Tobie and I have "truly" known each other for about 1,740 days (not counting online interactions prior to that first meet-up.

So while it may not seem like much, but there are only so many ways one can make a donation seem even a little romantic. Thus I've donated P1,740 (more or less) to both the Philippine Red Cross and the UN World Food Programme as a way of celebrating our love and also doing our part.

I love you, Tobie. I hope more people get to celebrate their love as geekily as we do. And I do hope that our modest donation helps to folks affected by the storm.

You too can donate to aid in relief efforts in the Philippines. Here are a few organization that accept online donations, so it's ridiculously easy from the comfort of your computer:

• Philippine Red Cross
• UN World Food Programme
• UNICEF
• World Vision

Be A Superhero By Donating To The Red Cross!

Re-sharing this clever graphic by Carlo Vergara, the creator of the gender-bending superhero Zsazsa Zaturnnah. At the end of the day it stresses just how easy it is to donate to the Red Cross, especially in light of recent natural disasters that have primarily hit the Visayas region including the Bohol earthquake and Typhoon Yolanda that has practically decimated the province of Leyte.

Apart from SMS donations, there are many ways to donate to the Philippine Red Cross including direct bank deposits, wire transfers or even PayPal.

Marriage Equality for ALL

Today in the US, the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding California's Proposition 8 and potentially a legal means to open the door for same-sex marriage across the entire United States. And while I personally feel that the court may side-step the issue entirely based on the tone of their questions, I'm still hopeful that a chance at achieving true marriage equality remains there.

Meanwhile on Facebook, lots of people started to change their profile photos to the image above in line with a social media blitz launched by the Human Rights Campaign in support of marriage equality. Tobie and I followed suit some time in the night (or in the middle of the day with respect to US time) to show our support from across the ocean.

I have previously blogged about why I feel gay marriage is important on a number of occasions, and it only makes to repeat that message here on Baduy Pride. This is about our right to have our love for our partners to be recognized by society as a whole after all and to attain the legal protections that come with the title of marriage.

I'm most touched by my straight friends who also took part in the social media activity. It's one thing to have members of the LGBT community discussing the importance of gay rights on social media, but to have straight friends doing the same is always a good. As we constantly state, LGBT rights are human rights after all. It's not about gender but about being afforded equal protections as fellow human beings. I can only hope that more friends join in supporting our fight for greater legal protections and rights as time passes or perhaps even join in a pride march some time.

The fight for LGBT rights cannot be won by the pink community alone. We are a minority group after all. That means that the greater majority of people out there need to practice that aspect of democracy that helps us look out for the minorities and marginalized groups out there and ensure their rights are protected. That's how the system is supposed to work.

Marriage Equality for ALL!!!

Since PNoy Loves Copying Obama...

Given how our President, Benigno "PNoy" Aquino III tends to copy his US counterpart President Barrack Obama in a lot of things such as his campaign centered around tapping the youth vote, winning through popularity and his supposed savvy for social media and new communication channels, it would be interesting to see just how far PNoy will go to copy President Obama.

In an interview with ABC News' Robin Roberts, President Obama went on record to state his support same-sex marriage in the United States.

His statement as quoted by The Advocate:

“I’ve stood on the side of broader equality I hesitated on gay marriage in part because I thought civil unions would be sufficient,” the president said. “But I have to tell you that over the course of several years, as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that 'don't ask, don't tell' is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama said.

So way to go President Obama! Sure, he could have done this a lot earlier in the term and words can seem cheap considering how he's dragged his feet with a lot of key LGBT issues, but that's in the past. What's more important is the fact that he has finally done something that no other sitting US President has ever done by making such a strong statement of public support for gay marriage. And that's something worth celebrate.

Your move, PNoy. Doesn't everyone deserve the chance to love whomever they want?