Gay Pride Signs – Inspiration from Manila

Playing around with Photoshop, Chad created these signs the other day.  They are based on some of the signs held up during the Manila pride march.
What do you think?

Original:

Photograph by Charles Meacham

New Alternative:

Original:

Photograph by Charles Meacham

New Alternative:

A little more positive don’t you think.

(Just a reminder, email/Facebook us any examples of your favorite pride slogans or posters, we’d like to post them!)

Best Pro-Gay Protest Signs, part 1

I was looking online today to see what pride signs I could find.  Though most are pretty spread out across the Internet, I did find some good ones.  Please send me your favorites, I’d love to post them.

From: The 50 Best Protest Signs of 2009

From: The 50 Best Protest Signs of 2009

From: The 50 Best Protest Signs of 2009

From: About.com: Political Humor

From: About.com: Political Humor

And of course, here are some of our favorites from the Manila pride parade:

Photograph by Charles Meacham

Photograph by Charles Meacham

Photograph by Charles Meacham

You can find even more ideas for gay protest signs at: Join the Impact

Or, lots of the products available at Top Pun’s Rainbow Store also display gay pride slogans.

If you want to check out the opposition, Queeried (GLBT News and Lifestyle Magazine) has posted on article showing 10 signs from the anti-gay side, here.

Send me your favorite gay pride posters,
and I’ll share them on the blog! 😀

Photographer’s Perspective: Fear and Loving in Manila

(Blog post by Charles Meacham – thoughts on photographing the 2009 Manila Pride March)

I’ve spent a lot of time in airplanes, but rarely has that time been spent sleeping.  Hundreds of bad movies, cheap travel magazines, and “single serving” conversations have kept me up past time zones, date lines, and of course my bed time.  My flight to Manila was no different, and I found myself walking passing customs at just after 3 in the morning.  There are no cars waiting for me, no drivers holding a sign with my name.  There are no reservations at a local hotel.  At this time of night there is only an empty bench, and an hour or two before the sun comes up.  Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time sleeping on airport benches and floors during these early morning hours.  I enjoy the silence in a place that is usually bustling with people and all the noise that comes with them.

Sun comes up, taxi ride, hotel check in.   My hotel in Manila was just a two minute walk from the meeting point of the parade, so that morning, still unable to sleep, I headed out with a map showing the parade route. 

New Videos – Manila Pride March 2009

Check out videos of the Manila Pride March 2009 on the WWPproject’s Youtube playlist!

http://www.youtube.com/theWWPproject

… and share with us any other videos you might have of the parade, we’re happy to add them to the channel.

Departure

On Wednesday night Chad left for Manila.  His leaving didn’t go quite as smoothly as I had hoped.

It was just over a month ago that I booked the flight.  Chad would be leaving Taipei at about 1:30, and arriving in Manila at 3:30 in the afternoon.  I really didn’t give the ticket much thought until this last Wednesday evening when Chad, after a day’s work, decided to confirm the time he’d be flying out the next day.  And then I heard, “Um, is this for 1:30 tomorrow afternoon, or 1:30 tonight?!”

This was a classic “oh shit” moment.  It was a bit frantic, as Chad still had to pack, but luckily all his camera gear was ready.  He took the little mix-up pretty well, but I don’t think he was too pleased to be getting into Manila at 3:30 in the morning.  The good thing is he didn’t miss his flight (phew), and now I will be obsessively double-checking before all future flights to see if they are in 12 hour or 24 hour formats.

While in Manila Chad will be getting a feel for the Malate district.  Chad’s guesthouse is right in the center of the area, about a block away from the parade’s starting point – Remedios Circle.  The parade will be ending in the nearby streets of Maria Orosa St. and Julio Nakpil St., known in the gay community for their lively nightlife.

Over the next few days Chad has plans to meet with some of the figures in the Philippines LGBT community.  This includes Reverend Ceejay Agbayani, the first Filipino clergy of Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) ordained in the Philippines, and head of the march’s parade committee.  With luck, Chad will also have a chance to meet with Bruce Amoroto, a Filipino gay activist and current president-coordinator of TEAM PILIPINAS (Philippine Forum on Sports, Culture, Sexuality, and Human Rights.  Stay tuned as write-ups on the march will be starting next week.