The Philippines again made history by drawing the largest attendance in a Pride event in Asia despite experiencing unfavorable weather and other setbacks. The events in celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride Month on 22 and 30 June gathered a cumulative total of 228,000 attendees, according to organizers, including those who attended the main event in Quezon City, Love Laban 2 Everyone: Pride PH Festival 2024, and simultaneous Pride events in different parts of the country. The number more than doubled from last year’s turnout of 110,752. Attendees were largely LGBTQ+ groups and individuals, different kinds of organizations, allies and fans of featured performers.

This year’s Pride event, organized by Pride PH, a network of LGBTQ+ groups, and the Quezon City government, also became bigger, marked by two Pride marches in mid-afternoon. The Love Pride March, which started at Tomas Morato Avenue and Eugenio Lopez Drive, was composed of the Quezon City contingent, sponsors, workplace and business cluster and other attendees, while the Laban Pride March, which started at the Quezon City Hall, was composed of members of grassroots and human rights organizations, the youth, students, the elderly, persons with disabilities, representatives from the media, arts and culture sector, health groups, faith-based networks and others. The two marches on Elliptical Road upon entering Quezon Memorial Circle (QMC), the main venue of the Pride event. According to organizers, it was a “symbol of our community coming together to achieve our dream of having a society where everyone is treated equally and without bias.” Many in the LGBTQ+ sector perceive that the community is fragmented and this endeavor strived to gather different factions to conjure strength for the struggle to achieve equal rights, chief among these is the passage of the SOGIESC Equality Bill, which has been languishing in legislation for more than two decades.

Aside from the Pride Expo, where organizations, corporate sponsors, and LGBTQ- run businesses set up booths and engaged with attendees, at QMC, there was the Pride Food and Art Market along Matalino Street, organized in partnership with the Maginhawa Food Community, where booths were also set up and street and onstage performances were held, stretching from Kalayaan Avenue to Malakas Street.