To mark Pride Month, the Quezon City local government launched its “The Right to Care Card” program, which will allow LGBTQ+ couples to make medical decisions for each other just like those under a civil marriage contract.
Meanwhile, organizers marked Metro Manila Pride Month with the “Tayo ang Kulayaan Pride March and Festival” at the Circuit Event Grounds in Makati City.
The street fair started at 10 a.m. Saturday while the afternoon program began at 2:30 p.m. to kick off the march at 4 p.m.
Prior to the Pride March, Metro Manila Pride also hosted the “Pride Picnic x Pride Speaks” through a hybrid session last June 18, with online discussion spaces last June 21.
In Baguio City, Northern Luzon Pride’s lineup of activities culminated in “Panagbeki” at Smoke and Barrel at the Summer Pines Residences along Aspiras-Palispis Highway.mani
A night of dancing, lipsync smackdown, a drag show, and DJ sets marked the event.
Quezon City’s Pride Festival attracted over 50,000 members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual community and their supporters.
The Right to Care Card, the program’s Twitter account explained, is a Special Power of Attorney card “that authorizes queer partners to make medical decisions for the one they love, as though you held the power of a civil marriage contract.”
“In the eyes of the law, queer couples are not recognized as next-of-kin during medical emergencies. This makes them powerless in making important medical decisions for their partners,” it added.
Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte on Friday said the program was studied by their lawyers.
“We studied it. We have a battery of lawyers go through this if we can do it. And the lawyers said that it can be done through a special power of attorney, it’s like a special contract,” she said, adding that the project is the first of its kind in the Philippines.
The Right to Care Card also allows LGBTQ+ couples to include their partners as a beneficiary in their insurance contracts, which Belmonte said was previously not allowed.
Quezon City’s Pride Festival, which is organized by Pride PH, is an all-day event featuring the Pride Expo, Pride March, and Pride Night.
“More than a celebration, the Pride Festival is a call to end the discrimination, hate, and prejudice among members of the LGBTQIA+. We are holding this activity not because this sector is seeking special treatment. Rather, what they long for is simply a halt to the undeserved ill-treatment and denial of opportunities they continue to suffer from,” Mayor Belmonte said.