After Two Years of Remote Events, Pride Returned—Live and in Person—to the Philippines

On Saturday, the Philippines’ ongoing fight for LGBTQ+ rights was made visible at a diverse and boisterous march in Quezon City. Pride PH, one of the widest national networks of the country’s LGBTQ+ organizations, spearheaded the festival and its reach showed, with thousands filling the streets to send a clear message of support for queer love in all its forms.

Queer Filipino photographer Pau Villanueva was on hand to capture the scene, noting that the in-person event was arranged to be as COVID-safe as possible: “Pride march events all over the country were apparently scheduled in parallel and organized together to be able to mitigate the rising COVID cases and risks here in the Philippines, especially in the major cities in Metro Manila. This then gave more space for queer individuals and communities to join the festival in the city nearest to them.” See his photos below.