In Quezon City, we celebrate all kinds of love as the city government hosts and organizes events primarily for QCitizens who are also members and allies of the rainbow community. Among them are the Love Laban Pride Festival and the LGBTQIA+ Commitment Ceremony.
The Quezon City Government, through the Gender and Development Council Office and in partnership with Pride PH, commences the annual Love Laban Pride Festival, where hundreds of participants from the LGBTQIA+ community and allies gather to engage in activities that showcase the community’s diversity and vibrancy.
Businesses owned or led by people from the queer community were invited to put up booths that sell various products and foods during the event.
The Small Business and Cooperatives Development and Promotions Office (QC-SBCDPO) also sets up the POP QC Pride Month Bazaar, which provides QCitizen entrepreneurs with an opportunity to promote their local products using social media, trade fairs, bazaars, and e-commerce.
Hundreds of members of the community have exchanged vows officiated by Mayor Joy Belmonte and witnessed by other city officials in the Commitment Ceremony for the LGBTQIA+ Couples organized by the city government’s Gender and Development Council Office.
Apart from the ceremony, the participants were given simple presents as a wedding gift and remembrance of the event.
Both the festival, as a platform for the LGBTQIA+ community to aspire and dream of a more inclusive Philippines, and the Commitment Ceremony that recognizes love regardless of gender, are part of the local government’s goal to provide a place where every member of the community is well-respected and treated equally.
