15 years of rainbow pride, going for more

And yet another belated celebratory note for my blog - I told myself, it's something that musn't pass without mention, however late, it has to be blogged. In fact, I still feel flushed with all warmth of pride whenever I afford myself to reminisce. It's an honor, and a source of pride, to have been part of UP Babaylan.

Last August, UP Babaylan celebrated its fifteenth year. UP Babaylan is the University's lesbian and gay students' organization founded in the 90's. It is the first and longest surviving student organization committed to advocating LGBT rights - as far as I know, and at least in the UP System's.

For its 15th anniversary, UP Babaylan lined up some very remarkable activities, which included a photo shoot that involved as much alumni, honorary and resident members. Attendance to the photo shoot was astounding - almost (or over?) 70 members showed up, including faculty advisers J. Neil Garcia and Tuting Hernandez and some of the founding members. I almost didn't make it. Earlier, I promised myself, before going to Colombo for the 8th ICAAP, I was going to have one wisdom tooth extracted. And a day before the shoot, I did. When Ferdie finally convinced me to rush over the studio, my face was still all sore and numb.

After a quick stop at a Bench store to buy myself the requisite white shirt, I proceeded to the studio location without any idea what I was about to experience. Karir itoh! I immediately thought upon entering the studio. The dressing room was all abuzz with reunion chatter in between make-up/retouch sessions and fittings/dress-ups. White apparel of every fabric and accessory (think leather, pearl chokers and feather) added brightness to the already brightly lit dresser tables.

I felt a bit lost when I went into the studio itself. I almost didn't notice the setup as there were gaggles of smaller groupings and lots of digital cameras and camphones flashing away. Further inside the studio, I noticed Joel Acebuche was apparently at the helm of the activity. I shouldn't have been surprised with all the effort put into the photoshoot - Joel's the guy Babaylan trusts when it comes to creative endeavors like this. What surprised me, though, but in a very pleasant way, was realizing afterwards that I was actually in Frank Hoefsmit's studio and  Niccolo Cosme was actually our official photographer - kakaibang level na toh! (Initially, I thought the photoshoot simply consisted of a visit to one of those service outlets, around 10 or 20 people queued for a group pic followed by other customers who needed their passport ID's taken.)

Outcome of the shoot, as it would turn out, were life-sized cutouts exhibited at the Diliman campus' Palma Hall lobby. I found time to visit the exhibit before it was struck down - five life-sized sets of members, flanked side by side, representing all the years of Babaylan's advocacy for LGBT visibility and acceptance. It was awe-insipiring.

(For more photo coverage of UP Babaylan's 15th anniversary events, visit UP Babaylan's Multiply site. Acknowledgment is also due to resident member Maxi, from whom some of the pics I posted here came. Kudos also to members Armi and Marko for the anniversary logo - very, very fab!)