How is it to be LGBTQ+ in Colombia? 

        Colombia has come such a long way regarding the appreciation of LGBTQ+ rights all over the territory, however is still a work in progress. Living as a gay man in Medellín has made me realized how lucky I am. When I came out all of my friends were very supportive, same as my mom and pretty much everyone that I surround myself with; I felt really appreciated by all the love, but a couple days after I realized the position of privilege that I was in.

Unfortunately, it is likely that a little queer kid living in San Javier Heights would not have had the same luck as myself. Probably He/She/They woul have been rejected by its family members and kicked out of the house; only having the streets as its way of income (most likely a drug dealer or sex worker)with the constant fear of being murdered just for walking on the street at night. This constant situation would only lead to struggling the rest of his/her/them life between death and misery, only for being queer and coming from this particular place. This same situation happens all around the country, most likely in low income neighborhoods in the cities and rural spaces (which more than 77% of the Colombian population live in these places) 

Lots of activism centers have brought these situations to the media attention. Even though since 2012 our country has created a law that punishes Hate crimes towards sexual orientation, there´s still couple of voids that are need to be filled. Colombia is currently the third country in America with the highest rates of hate crimes towards Queer people (only surpassed by Brazil and Mexico). 119 LGBTQ people were killed in Colombia in the year 2019, this was the highest homicide number since 2012 and 43% were confirmed to be a crime infuenced by their sexual orientation or gender identity. 

This horrorific scenarios would not be different until a major part of the population would have the accesibilty to gender and sexual education, no only the privileged minority of the country. Sadly, coming from a privileged place does not exclude you from being discriminated in work or public places; I´ve had some personal experiences that still makes me realize that our goal is still very far from being achieved. the best way of understanding our situation is to educate yourself. 

Every day that the country passes without receiveing the appropiate education on vulnerable communities about LGBTQ+ population, is a torture for this minority that their only goal is to be understood and not having fear to be seen in public. And as I´m still writing, it only comes more and more examples of how deteriored is the lifestyle of queer people in most places around the country (Example: the average life of trans women in Colombia is 33 years). So I think that I made more than clear by now what is what we have to do as a community. 

In case you wanna be more educated regarding LGBTQ+ population, I  highly recommend you to read "NO SOMOS ETCETERA", by Elizabeth Castillo. She is someone that I have met personally and I´m beyond proud of her work and what she have done for the queer people in Colombia. 

Thanks for reading, let me know if you have any questions regarding these kind of topics, I´ve been part of LGBTQ+ colectives for more than I year and I´d be more than happy to help! remember,sexual orientation is not a matter of chose, trans men are men, and trans women are women!

 

References: 

- Jimenez, J. (2017) Discriminación y exclusión laboral en la comunidad LGBT: un estudio de caso en la localidad de chapinero, Bogóta Colombia. Pag 1-58. Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México. Tomado de: https://www.redalyc.org/jatsRepo/112/11252977009/html/index.html

- Valor compartido (2020). Homofobia sigue predominando en muchos países de América Latina. VALOR COMPARTIDO PERÚ. Tomado de: https://valor-compartido.com/homofobia-sigue-predominando-en-muchos-paises-de-america-latina/

- Colombia diversa (2015). Informe de violencia hacia perosnas LGBT en Colombia. Tomado de: https://colombiadiversa.org/ddhh-lgbt/