Members of the LGBT community gather inside UP Diliman and carry rainbow flags for the UP Pride March on October 30, 2020. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News.
MANILA — Some LGBT leaders on Tuesday discussed how technology and media have progressed in 2022 to be more gender-inclusive.
Darwin Mariano, founder of Ticket2Me, said that the rise of the boys' love series has given queer narratives the space in mainstream media.
"I think it’s important to show the community and the country that these kinds of stories can be successful but also to be able to show (those people,), particularly kids growing up who realized that they’re different from their friends or their classmates, that you know what, there are stories like these and that it’s ok to be different," Mariano said in a Pride Conversations led by Google.
"It’s ok to love who you want to love and that the rules that you grew up under may not be necessarily be the hard and fast rules that you thought they were as you get older."
Maki Gingoyon, co-founder and COO of my transgenderdate.com, saw the need to give transgender sisters the space to meet people.
"We need to be fair. We need to be transparent with our members and we need to make sure that we make our members feel comfortable," Gingoyo said.
Christina del Rosario, head of design for First Circle, said that the rise of queer content creators in social media has helped her get their perspective.
"I think the great thing that tech has done for us is to really connect us all and let us know that we’re not alone. Social media as well has given a great platform to share their stories," del Rosario said.
"I follow a lot of trans and non-binary content creators because it helps me be a better ally so I could share their points of view to other people."
Beyond online spaces, Mark Lacsamana, UI design lead of PageUp, shared how important it is to be proud of who one is as it will inspire others to do the same in their workplace.
"When we ourselves are super open and super genuine with our presentation in the office it helps other people feel safe, to actually be themselves," Lacsamana said.
"I didn’t realize that being as authentic as I am could change that much when it comes to people and that’s why I continue to do that. Beyond that I always try to remind people that, no, gay people, queer people has always been here."
Sam Rose Cruz, product designer at XSplit, said that people should always make people feel loved as this is still lacking in online spaces.
"Our community has always been about showing up for people and we’re continuing to show up for people and we keep on reminding people that it’s about belonging and reminding people that we are not alone," Cruz said.
Miss Trans Global 2020 Mela Habijan added that people should sustain a healthy environment for queer people in online spaces.
"It is also a journey of ourselves to, one, assuring that the goal doesn’t end by simply creating safe spaces it’s also sustaining it. So that the children could make use of the safe spaces we have created now and enjoy it for the rest of the generations to come," Habijan said.
June is the celebration of Pride Month.
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