The Third Kind: Dancesport Championship
The Third Kind Dancesport Championship was a dancesport event held on the 15th of November 2024 at 8:00 PM at the Pantawan People’s Park. This event was made to showcase LGBTQ+ partners competing through dancesport categories in support of the LGBTQ+ community movement. The event was organized by the Dumaguete City Dancesport, Inc. in partnership with the Dumaguete City LGU. Since this was held at Pantawan People’s Park, spectators were free to come and see the competition and give their support to the participants.
Because the LGBTQ+ community is still not widely accepted in our country, I had initially thought that the spectating crowd would be full of malice towards the dance partners since they were all part of the LGBTQ+ community. However, I did not expect that the people were truly only watching as support and not to laugh at the participants. This is an incredible step towards full acceptance of the LGBT people in the Philippines. Because of the positive impact the event had made on the crowd, the dancers were even more encouraged to give their all to win a shot at first place. It was an incredible experience seeing them all compete so fervently while the crowd cheered on. This experience has made me incredibly proud of how far acceptance has come for our very conservative society.
This event has made me realize that maybe not all people are all that bad when it comes to interacting with the LGBTQ+ community and that there really can be some kind of truce between the act of acceptance and the act of downright hating and denying the existence of our fellowmen. It is my hope in the future that I can also witness this event again and watch the transformative acceptance of the people of Dumaguete towards the community. Holding this event at the Pantawan People’s Park was an incredibly good choice, as it not only gave the dancers exposure but also gave the people of Dumaguete the chance to support the dancers as both being part of the community and for their dancing talents.
Because of this activity, I am more than proud of the locales of Dumaguete City for accepting their LGBTQ+ members, for not discriminating against them, and for giving full support for their passion in dancing. The event has clearly made its mark on the people of Dumaguete, and I only have the organizers to thank for it.