CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Every June, public high schools in Central Luzon hold activities, including beauty contests, among their students belonging to the LGBTQ sector to mark Pride Month.
It turns out that the commemoration is peculiar only to the region via a regional Department of Education memorandum.
Thus, Senate President Vicente Sotto questioned recently the inclusion of Pride Month in the Department of Education’s calendar in Central Luzon.
During the hearing of the DepEd’s P525.88-billion budget for 2020, Sotto confronted education officials with DepEd Region III’s Memorandum No. 28.
“There was a memorandum issued by the DepEd Region III which calls for… the inclusion in the school calendar the lesbian, gays, bisexual and transgender Pride Month every month of June,” Sotto said last Tuesday. “Is the secretary aware of this memo?”
Sen. Pia Cayetano, who sponsored the DepEd budget, said that such a memo was issued but added that no teacher or student was required to participate in Pride Month activities. “They can participate but they cannot require,” she said.
Sotto also questioned why LGBT Pride Month was lumped together with “very good undertakings” such as Women’s Month, Breastfeeding Month, Peace Education Month, Children’s Month, 18-day Campaign to End Violence Against Women, and Human Rights Month.
“As far as I know, pride is still one of the seven deadly sins,” he said, adding that “In my book that I wrote many years ago, ‘A Vision for a Drug-Free Philippines,’ I have written that pride is the head of Satan and humility is his headache. So, I hope the DepEd would try to avoid something as controversial as this.”
While Education Sec. Leonor Briones assured Sotto that the memorandum was no longer in effect, Punto has confirmed that some public schools in Pampanga observed Pride Month by holding beauty contests for LGBT members last June.
Aside from seeking the inclusion of LGBT Pride Month in the school calendar, Memorandum No. 82 also sought a “gender-responsive governance” of schools.
Some of the memorandum’s proposed activities include the “integration of gender sensitivity in the subjects or learning areas, trainings” and information and advocacy campaigns on gender and development.
