Pride Month in the Philippines has always been more than glitter and rainbow flags—it’s protest wrapped in celebration, resilience dressed in color.
And in a year where the SOGIESC Bill still languishes in legislative purgatory, the need for bold, visible advocacy has never been more urgent.
On June 17, 2025, Verde Creatives Incorporated marked its eighth anniversary by unveiling a campaign that looks you in the eye and refuses to blink—a bold statement in the face of silence.
Enter “EQUALITY CHAMPIONS: Magandang Laban,” a landmark photo campaign that uses the language of portraiture to shift hearts and pressure policymakers.
In an era where representation can mean survival, these images aren’t passive—they protest, persuade, and protect. They are frames filled not just with faces, but with fire.From its first image, the campaign disrupts. Faces look straight into the camera—unapologetic, proud, and powerfully present.
Photographed by Verde Creatives’ in-house team and featuring members of Ladlad Partylist, STRAP, and their allies, the portraits are more than visual documentation. They are protest signs, open letters, and mirrors—each subject putting on a brave face, not to conceal, but to confront. They do what headlines and hashtags often fail to do: they humanize.
At the helm is Ms. Bemz Benedito, the visionary transgender leader whose work has long fused activism with visual storytelling. “Each photograph tells a story of courage, resilience, and the unwavering demand for dignity,” Benedito shares. The campaign, she says, is a tool—both shield and spotlight. It seeks to amplify the urgent call for the passage of the SOGIESC Bill, a piece of legislation that has languished in Congress despite two decades of advocacy.
By choosing portraiture as its medium, Verde Creatives taps into a long tradition of using photography as both archive and arsenal. Where LGBTQIA+ lives are often erased or misrepresented in mainstream media, “Equality Champions” frames them with care, style, and precision.
“Magandang Laban,” which translates to “Good Fight,” is not only a nod to beauty pageant culture—long a refuge and stage for queer Filipinos—but also a rallying cry rooted in cultural fluency.
Much like its predecessor, the 2024 “Queen of Baguio” campaign that spotlighted transgender visibility, “Equality Champions” doesn’t rely on spectacle. It doesn’t have to. Its power lies in its intimacy.
In each shot, the subject’s identity is not a statement of difference but a declaration of belonging.The campaign builds strength through diversity, featuring leaders like Dexter Macaldo of Ladlad, Santy Lavno of STRAP, beauty queen Maria Barbie Anne Arcache, and representatives from organizations such as TAO and the LGBTQIA+ unit of LTFRB.
Notably, it also includes powerful allies from the public and private sectors, such as Senator Loren Legarda, Rep. Geraldine Roman, and even PGen. Rommel Marbil and his wife, Mary Rose. Their inclusion signals a broader coalition.
These are not fringe voices anymore.In a time when photo-sharing is nearly instinctive, “Equality Champions” makes a calculated demand: look closer. Beyond the frame lies the context—decades of discrimination, silencing, and legislative neglect.
But within the frame is something else entirely: pride, power, and the unrelenting will to be seen.
Campaigns like this one are not just art installations; they are public interventions. They seize the scrolling moment and make it matter. And in a country where representation often determines protection, they are revolutionary.
