Local LGBTQ group celebrates Pride Month 2021
By Doreen Marielle Rosales
BUTUAN CITY -- Amid the coronavirus
disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ) community in Agusan del Norte joined the
entire world in celebrating the 2021 Pride Month Celebration held on June.
Festivities were launched by
GARBO – Agusan del Norte, a LGBTQ group supported by the provincial government
of Agusan del Norte which is founded by its employees.
“For this year’s celebration,
we copied the theme from the New York City Pride, which is “The Fight
Continues,” said GARBO-ADN co-founder Christian Rey Cloma.
Various competitions were
launched such as the ’Drag Up Your Life’ Makeover Challenge, where participants
are challenged to come up with their most creative drag look; the ‘Talentadong
Ka-Garbo’ Pop Dance competition; and the GARBO Short Film Competition, where
storytellers are given the chance to portray in the film their own
interpretation of the theme.
More or less 50 community
members from the ten municipalities and one component city of the province
joined the competition, the youngest being 15 years old. Winners of each
challenge will receive a cash prize as big as P15,000 and other freebies.
The top three winners of the
makeover challenge will win P7,000, P5,000, and P3,000, respectively, while
three others will receive a consolation prize of P1,500 while the winning
entries of the talent competition will win P5,000, P3,000, P2,000, respectively
and a consolation prize of P1,000 will be given to succeeding three entries.
For the short film competition, three entries receiving top ratings from the
judges will receive P15,000, P10,000, and P7,000, respectively while three more
entries will receive a P3,500 consolation prize.
As of writing, entries have
now been deliberated by the panel of judges and will be announced on Thursday,
June 24, 2021 at 6PM PST. Entries are posted at the group’s official Facebook
page, https://www.facebook.com/GARBOAGUSAN.
GARBO-ADN was founded by Mr.
Elly Navarroza, Jr. and Mr. Cloma who are co-workers at the Human Resource
Department of the Provincial Government. They marked the group’s founding by
launching its first Pride event for last year’s Pride Month celebration.
(DMNR/PIA-Caraga)
