BEAR-ing it All for Visibility at This is Me: Brave and Free
By Carlos Diego A. Rozul More and more people are joining in to support the campaign a s the Philippines’ first community-led multi-site HIV testing day draws near . Three bold men are stepping up towards a big change for the community. Ian Carandang who owns a dessert shop and makes ice cream for a living, Den Viagedor who works in a BPO in Taguig, and Dennis Roda who works as a corporate trainer as well as an LGBT rights advocate came together in supporting This is Me: Brave and Free on May 26, 2018 . Joining the Campaign Den in particular joined the campaign as his first step in taking action in the HIV advocacy “I think it’s great that the Filipino community is adapting to this kind of campaign. I really want to represent the (bear) community for HIV because personally I have someone close in my life na nagkaroon ng HIV.” Den shared. Given the conservative culture of many Filipinos, Ian voices out how topics such as HIV need to be normalized. “These types of campaigns wher...