The Pride March and my plan to 'come out'

Last Saturday's Gay Pride March held in Tomas Morato in Quezon City was a first for me. Participation-wise. In last year's march held in Malate, my partner and I were just in the sidelines as we both watched the parade start from Remedios Circle. We later walked along the parade route and sometime during the parade, we joined our friend who were part of the Out Philippines contingent.

When Bruce Amoroto of TeamPilipinas advertised about the parade this year and he was seeking volunteers to help carry the 40-meter rainbow flag, I immediately wrote to Bruce early last November and told him I want to be one of the flag bearers and so we met over at Starbucks in Shangri-La Mall, where Bruce interviewed me and briefed me on what will we do. Another meeting was set last November 27, a week before the march to discuss details of the activity.

Pride March came and went and it very tiring but still fun and liberating nonetheless. However, a side story to this is that 2 days before the march, I had planned to come out in public regarding my HIV status since this year's march had HIV and Aids awareness as a theme. I planned to ask the emcees of the program that would follow the march for permission to speak to everyone and then come out regarding my status to put a new face to the health problem and perhaps, the audience will learn a lesson or two from my experience that I was going to share. I also wanted to call the government's attention to the growing HIV and Aids problem in the country as the number of new cases has increased tremendously this year. I thought long and hard about what I was planning to do and weighed the pros and cons.

I consulted 2 close friends in the poz community, my partner, and my elder sister about what I was planning to do. I told them about the pros and cons. The cons however outnumbered the pros. I risk getting terminated from my job and getting kicked out of my boarding house if I came out in public despite the law (Republic Act 8504) protecting HIV-positive individuals in the country against discriminatory acts. I would also be putting myself, my family, and my partner at risk also to discrimination and stigma. Since my partner and I work in the same company, I might jeopardize my partner's continued employment in our company since they see us always together. We are not out as a couple in our place of work but I guess our fellow employees have a suspicion that we are partners.

Anyway, to cut the long story short and following the advice of my elder sister, I decided not to push through with my "coming out" last Saturday. It proved to be a wise decision because the march and the program held after the event were happy occasions and my coming out would have dampened the celebratory mood.

To quote my elder sister, she said it is best that I do not come out in public - for now. The right opportunity will come and I will just have to wait.