Ang pagsisimula ng buwan ng Hunyo ay tanda rin ng selebrasyon bilang pagkilala sa mga taong bahagi ng Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer o LGBTQ+ Community.

Ito ang buwan kung saan ipinagdiriwang ang patuloy na sama-samang pagkilos kontra sa diskriminasyon at paglaban sa karapatan ng bawat isang bahagi ng komunidad.

Isa si Caila Tibayan, dalawampu’t isang taong gulang na kaisa sa paglabang ito. Bahagi na ng kanyang advocacy ang pagbibigay ng boses para sa mga taong kabilang sa LGBTQ+ Community.

Sa panayam ng Arkipelago News sa kanya, ibinahagi ni Caila ang kahalagahan ng Pride Month para sa kanya.

“Everyday is pride for me because everyday I chose to live in pride with who I am. Pride month is to have that day or to have that month where I celebrate the pride that I do everyday and have that sort of spotlight in me and in my friends in the community who’ve been doing the same to acknowledge our existence and to greet each other happy pride because we know that we’ve come a long way,” paliwanag ni Caila.

Dagdag pa niya, hindi lang daw tungkol sa pagwawagayway ng bahagharing bandila ang Pride Month. Ang layunin ng pagmamartsa ay mas malalim pa sa kantahan, sayawan at kasiyahan.

Ito ay isang protesta at tanda ng paglaban.

“Pride march to me is… it has always been a fight, it has always been a collective resistance over the change in the society that seeks to bind us, in oppression, in discrimination, in tolerance not pure acceptance… it is a collective fight to have that one true goal of liberation and acceptance in society,” ayon kay Caila.

Sa edad na labingpitong taong gulang nag-umpisa nang makilahok sa pagdiriwang si Caila. Marami raw siyang masasayang alaala mula rito na laging nagsasabi sa kanya na hindi siya nag-iisa.

“There’s that sense of relativeness, there’s that sense of sensitivity and kinship and understanding on that particular space. What pride march does is that it collects these different people with different background, different age and it compiles us in a space where we get to chant for liberation, we get to fight for a true accepting society not just a tolerating society,” kwento pa niya.

Nakakalungkot aniya na dalawang taon nang hindi pisikal na nakakapagdiwang ng Pride March. Dahil sa pandemyang kinakaharap ng bansa nananatiling sa kanya-kanyang tahanan na lamang ginagawa ang naturang selebrasyon.

“Not doing pride march physically, very sad, very very much. That physical aspect is the divining feature of pride and to have that taken away because of the pandemic and to have the government isn’t equipped enough with solving it, competently and seeing just how bad everything has gone down. It just makes me sad,” pahayag ni Caila.

Sa patuloy na pang-aabuso at araw-araw na pagsubok na nararanasan ng bawat isa sa komunidad ng LGBTQ+, nais ipaabot ni Caila na hindi sila nag-iisa.

“To everyone who feels that society isn’t still a safe place or a safe space for everyone or for us to thrive or for us to poster… you are not alone there’s still a lot of us who feel just the same, just know that everything that you do, every minute that you wake up acknowledging the fact that everything is still unfair but you choose to still wake up and fight for it and in the smallest way do what you can to triumph over it, to break free to certain aggression that you come and face in a daily basis is strength and courage,” paalala ni Caila.

Photo courtesy of Caila Tibayan