LOCAL LGBTQ GROUP CELEBRATES PRIDE MONTH 2021

By Doreen Marielle Rosales 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 GARBOADN 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. 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)