Pricking Pride

June is Pride month, and so it might be necessary to take stock of just that: how proud are LGBTs?

From the recent reception held by Netherlands Ambassador Saskia de Lang at her residence, it seemed there was plenty to be proud of. Four honorees were feted on this occasion, each introduced via short video clips helmed by young directors. Their impact on the mostly-young audience was stunning --all of a sudden, the enormity of what needed to be done, what LGBT advocates faced during those times, came to an abrupt collision course with millennials.

It was an encounter with “relics” of the ‘70s and ‘80s. And for one glorious evening, millennials tasted the firepower the relics brought to the table.

The event was supposed to feature activists from before the invention of the rainbow flag or the newly-minted term “LGBTQ”. Probably in recognition of that adage “how do you know where to go if you don't remember where you came from,” this was supposed to reconnect newbies with the generation that didn't have instantaneous means of communication to tread much darker paths.

Thus, there was poet/playwright Nick de Ocampo, shedding tears in the clip while remembering being called gay, but spewing fire and brimstone at the injustice of it, and advocating weaponizing words.

There was women's advocate, Anna Leah Sarabia, first secretary general of the International Lesbian & Gay Association (ILGA), who recalled the support of the Dutch Embassy in ILGA's early years (and how she had to package her request for aid as a lesbian women's cause so she could be funded by a women-only Dutch donor). She laughed at how they had nervously trooped to Congress to testify to advocate their cause.

Bishop Richard Mickley of the Metropolitan Christian Church recounted his early years when he heeded the call of expelled Catholics who still wanted to worship, and so ended up staying in Manila.

There were plenty of chuckles, tears, and questions as college students began asking where to go next. How would they take up the reins? What should they attack? What was expected of them?

Nervous laughter as De Ocampo asked half-seriously: Is it time for my generation to again take up the mantle and pick up the cudgels? But the mood turned dark as he grimly reminded them of the horrifying statistics of HIV-AIDS transmission in the country, and how the Philippines has one of the highest incidence of infections in the world.

Perhaps this health issue is indeed the challenge for the millennials, and it is full circle for activists in the ‘80s and ‘90s who bore the brunt of the AIDS scare. After decades of successful education and intervention, with lowered infection rates and an almost-cure in hand, the fearful community that had banded together seemed all set for retirement.

But nobody anticipated this viral explosion. The youth are plunging into reckless sexual conduct aided by hook-up apps, no longer inhibited by intolerance of sexual preferences, and perhaps even fueled by drugs and alcohol. Even with free testing, youths refused to be tested and treated.

There was challenge in the words of Ms. Sarabia, as she challenged millennials to take up their inheritance of this world and do with it as they wished. But how to replicate the street rallyists and the heaving throngs of ‘80s protesters, with these new digital citizens who cannot be bothered to show up in the streets? How to inform web inhabitants in this golden age of information, where viewers choose what information they want to absorb in their echo-chambers, and discard (or snub) everything else? How to galvanize coffee-guzzling warriors into effective condom and lube advocates?

Your turn, millennials. There might be much to be proud about, but each death from HIV-AIDs is a shame.