🗞️ This Saturday marked International Day of LGBTQ+ Pride, and people gathered in cities across Colombia to march in support of gay and trans rights as well as to protest against ongoing discrimination.
The Colombian Government supported events, hanging a rainbow flag on the Casa de Nariño and tweeting a video about official actions to incorporate a gender and sexuality lens into policymaking.
Nonetheless, gay, queer, and trans people still face a high degree of discrimination in Colombia - much of it linked to religious beliefs and right wing politics.
According to figures from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, there have been more than 11,000 acts of violence and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ population in the last decade. These figures include 750 murders, the majority of which were concentrated in the departments of Cauca and Antioquia.
These figures suggest that in the last decade, there have been three hate crimes per day. However, NGO Caribe Afirmativo counted approximately the same number of events in the last three years alone. The data is limited, but both figures are likely to be an under-representation of the situation in Colombia.
Last month, a bill looking to ban so-called ‘conversion therapy’ was sunk in Congress for the second time. Conversion therapy is a dangerous practice targeting LGBTQ+ youth, attempting to change their sexual or gender identities. This practice includes a range of discredited and often extremely traumatic practices, and is banned in 28 countries, including Ecuador, Brazil, and Argentina – as well as around 25 US states.
Homosexuality itself is criminalised in 62 countries around the world, and equal marriage is legally established in only 39.
🗞️ Controversy this week, following allegations that both the Constitutional Court and the Transitional Justice Court, the JEP, have been illegally wiretapped and monitored.
President Gustavo Petro blamed right-wing groups for the alleged phone-tapping, but the original whistleblower, Magistrate Jorge Enrique Ibáñez, claimed that the source was official intelligence agencies.
The Prosecutor, Attorney General, and President’s Office are all now opening investigations.
🗞️ Meanwhile, the first cycle of talks between the government and the Segunda Marquetalia FARC dissident group has come to a close. A nine-point agreement was reached, including a unilateral ceasefire and the release of hostages.
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