0166A: Oh Good Job Task Force Pride.


Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the first ad released by Task Force Pride. Grimace with me.

For the unaware, Task Force Pride is known for one thing more than anything else - organizing the annual Metro Manila Pride March. Different versions of the group have tried to dabble in other Pride events to some extent, but at the end of the day they focus on the Pride March. And that isn't a bad thing - the annual Pride March is one of the most important Pride celebrations in the country.

Each and every year, Task Force Pride has gone out to promote the march, invite more people to the march and generally try to drive participation for the Pride March. And this year they're indirectly campaigning against it. They're doing this since the newly formed QC Pride Council is putting up a Pride March, and thus TFP decided to "give way" in support of QC. But disagreements with the QCPC has led to this - in-fighting among LGBT groups woven into the very ad copy being used to promote their alternate Pride activities.

Last year the theme of the Pride March was Sari-Sali - stressing the need for more people to march and publicly show support for the LGBT community. This year the ad copy begins with a direct statement telling people that marching is not important. That you don't need to march to show your pride.

Seriously - WHAT THE FUCK TFP?!?

Last year I tried volunteering for Task Force Pride since some friends were involved in the organizing committee. The fact that last year's Pride March still pulled through was a miracle in itself given how disorganized the group was. The biggest problem with Task Force Pride's organizers, in my opinion, is in fact their pride ironically enough. Their's this weird perception that rubbed off on me of them wanting all the other groups to come to them and not the way around. They don't make as much as an effort to reach out to other groups. Instead there's half-hearted appeals for help and when they don't get responses they blame it on indifference. And then it becomes the task of a Messiah for the organizers to put the march together all by themselves. It's not at all noble. It's ridiculous.

And when the meetings continued on this year to discuss how to approach the 2013 events and such, the degree of disorganization did not get any better. The group was sticking to the mentality that it was best to work on things on their own and not factor in the general assembly until much later in the process. And the QC Pride Council was already a major topic then but the stance the group was taking was antagonizing and confrontational. What happened to the talk about being more inclusive in our approach to things? What about being supposedly smarter and what not?

This could have been a major win for TFP. They could have just included the Pride March as part of their overall calendar of events. They could have just focused on the message of it being important to march but add in the fact that there are other ways to celebrate Pride. They could have promoted this as a major expansion of the annual Pride celebrations into something greater. Instead they start this poster off by saying that people don't need to march. I'm calling shenanigans!

Here we are with battle lines being drawn. Sure, I've heard the QC Pride Council hasn't been entirely nice to TFP behind the scenes. However for TFP to stoop to an even lower level by incorporating their disagreements with their current plans for Pride 2013 is beyond disappointing. I am glad that I got out of that group before it was too late. I'm glad that I'm not a party to the decision-making that led to this new campaign.

And I know how they'll react - they'll say that since I'm not actively volunteering, then I have no right to say anything or critique their efforts. But please, TFP doesn't even know how to engage its volunteer network effectively. I was still on the roster as a volunteer after I left the organizing group but did I ever get a communication? Did any of the volunteers?

It's almost October. Good luck to everyone trying to organize Pride events this year. Instead of folks trying to work together and create a unified front to fight for LGBT rights, we're bringing the fight to the public. And quite frankly, I've had it with this childishness.

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