MANILA – On July 23, 2018, independent creative agency Propel Manila, LAGABLAB Network, the biggest coalition of LGBT organizations in the Philippines, and its allies hijacked the country’s most anticipated State of the Nation Address by the President, in a massive call for love in support of the SOGIE Equality Bill. And the result has been overwhelming, with thousands upon thousands of messages of love from supporters and allies that trended on social media in its first few hours.
The SOGIE (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression) Equality Bill has waited 20 years to finally pass the Congress. It is now in the hands of the Senate and it is very important that this gets passed because if not, it goes back to sleep until the new congress. The Senate, however, is composed of lawmakers who expressed strong opposition and loud hate for the bill.
“In this campaign, we wanted to fight hate not with more hate, but with love,” said the supporter kit which encouraged supporters and allies to send love letters straight to the Senators who showed hate for the SOGIE Equality Bill. The love letters came in the form of sincere personal pleas that were posted as tweets, Facebook posts, IG stories, IG posts, where the social medial accounts of Senators were tagged.
Starting 8pm on July 23, social media has been overflowing with love and support from the Filipino netizens, including broadcast journalists, social activists, artists, sports personalities and celebrities like Heart Evangelista, Anne Curtis, Iza Calzado, Karen Davila, Arnold Van Opstal, Chot reyes, Divine Lee, Janine Gutierrez, BJ Pascual, Joey Mead King, Tim Yap, Rajo Laurel, Mond Gutierrez, Mari Jasmine, Liz Uy, Georgina Wilson, Christine Babao, Carlos Celdran, Leeroy New, Brian Tenorio, Laureen Uy, Vince Uy, Kevin Balot, Sebastian Castro, Mikoy Morales, among others. Even brands, publications, universities and student groups showed and spread the love too!
“#LoveIsAllWeNeed campaign is an act of love in the spirit of volunteerism to push for the SOGIE Equality Bill to move forward in the senate,” says Melo Esguerra, a staunch supporter of the Equality Bill and one of the key people behind the campaign.
“This campaign has a massive impact in the community as it unites all LGBT groups, its allies and supporters, in making the country aware of how important this bill is and in uniting everyone to fight for the bill. A fight we fight with love,” says BJ Eco, Secretary General of LAGABLAB Network.
