ILOILO CITY -- Iloilo City Mayor Jose Espinosa III is considering to formally create an office for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender and also assign an executive assistant for LGBT affairs.
The office will see to it that their group is well-taken care of and little by little “improve the culture of acceptance”, he said in an interview on Wednesday.
The mayor called on the LGBTs to group together because they are “part and parcel” of the community of this highly-urbanized city.
“If we can have senior citizen and youth groups, why not LGBT? Here in Iloilo City we don’t look and frown at the LGBT,” he said as he declared this city to be LGBT-friendly.
The mayor said that worldwide, LGBTs are given “honor and self-respect”.
Similar to the Amsterdam’s Gay Pride Parade, Espinosa is thinking of also having a local LGBT Pride Parade to “give them self-confidence and respect.”
“We would like to show that here in Iloilo, everyone is welcome. No one is left behind,” he said.
Espinosa said that the LGBT has helped the city a lot, such as in the movies and in the media.
He added that when the city went on a trade and investment mission in the United States last June, some LGBT individuals volunteered their support.
Iloilo City is one of the cities in the country that enacted an “Anti-Discrimination Ordinance” making it unlawful discrimination based on sex, gender, identity, sexual orientation, race, color, decent, national or ethnic origin and religious affiliation or beliefs.
Last week the first ever search for Miss LGBT Ambassadress of Iloilo City was held as part of the city’s Charter Day celebration. (PNA)
