20/04/2020 Why Colombia’s Peace Process Could Mean Trouble for LGBT Rights

Why Colombia’s Peace

Process Could Mean Trouble
for LGBT Rights
Ari Shaw | Friday, July 21, 2017

Colombians celebrate a Supreme Court ruling

Last month, Colombia’s Congress rejected a referendum that that adoption agencies can’t discriminate
against sexual minority couples, Bogota, Nov. 5,
would have prohibited same-sex couples from adopting
2015 (AP photo by Fernando Vergara).
children. The measure had previously passed the Senate but was
defeated during its first debate in the lower chamber, the House
of Representatives.

LGBT activists hailed the vote as a remarkable affirmation of the rights of same-sex couples in Colombia,
where legal victories for same-sex marriage, adoption rights and military service have made Colombia
central to what many have called a “gay rights revolution” that has swept through Latin America over the
past decade.

Yet in a puzzling turn of events, the momentum in favor of further legal and political inclusion for LGBT
Colombians could be threatened by the historic peace process underway to end the country’s bloody, 52-
year civil war. The peace agreement between the Colombian government and the guerrilla group known as
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was the result of four years of internationally
sponsored negotiations in Havana; it reflects a monumental achievement and the most promising path
forward to end decades of armed conflict. But the difficult, complex process of implementing peace creates
new opportunities for anti-LGBT opponents to exert influence and define a more exclusionary future for the
country.

In fact, this is already taking place. In a stunning defeat last October, the peace deal was initially narrowly
rejected in a popular referendum by 50.2 percent of Colombians. Catholic and evangelical voters were
among the most vocal opponents, citing the imposition of what they deride as a new “gender ideology”
buried in the final text of the agreement. The peace process in Havana included a gender subcommission,
where activists, including representatives from LGBT groups, were invited to testify. More than 1,700 victims
in Colombia’s official victim registry, which covers violence from other guerrilla groups in addition to the
FARC, identify as LGBT.

The final text of the peace accord mentions LGBT people among other historically vulnerable groups, like
religious minorities and Afro-Colombians, to ensure that minority rights and political participation are
adequately incorporated into Colombia’s post-conflict transition. Former President Alvaro Uribe, a leading

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20/04/2020 Why Colombia’s Peace Process Could Mean Trouble for LGBT Rights

opponent of the peace deal, seized on the inclusion of LGBT groups to galvanize social conservatives,
claiming the deal attempted to undermine traditional notions of family and gender identity.

Even before the referendum vote on the peace deal, social conservatives in Colombia had mobilized against
policy changes that advanced protections for sexual minorities. Last summer, then-Education Minister Gina
Parody, who is openly lesbian, was the target of nationwide protests condemning proposed changes to
school guidelines that would protect students from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation.
The changes complied with a June 2015 mandate by the Constitutional Court following the death of a young
student, Sergio Urrego, who committed suicide after enduring repeated harassment from school
administrators because he was gay.

Opponents of the peace accord are seeking to use

LGBT rights as a red herring to undermine the vision
of a more just and inclusive Colombia.

When President Juan Manuel Santos temporarily removed Parody from her post ahead of the referendum,
in order to rally “yes” votes, he added fuel to the fire among right-wing activists who claimed the peace deal
was part of a broader effort to undermine the “traditional family” in Colombia. Alejandro Ordonez, a former
inspector general of Colombia and a strong opponent of LGBT rights, released a video shortly before the
referendum in which he pointed to the discussion of gender and sexuality in the Havana talks as evidence
that the government was “using peace as an excuse to impose their gender ideology.”

Although both houses of Congress later approved a revised peace deal in late November, the agreement’s
implementation presents new challenges for LGBT activists. For one, an increasingly conservative
Constitutional Court recently overturned aspects of legislation intended to streamline the peace accord
going into effect. The 2016 Legislative Act for Peace created a special “fast-track” procedure that, among
other things, limits Congress to an up-or-down vote on bills related to enacting the agreement.

But in response to a challenge from a member of Uribe’s Democratic Center party, the court ruled that the
fast-track legislation could not restrict Congress from modifying such bills. That opened the door for
opponents to delay implementing the peace deal and propose amendments that weaken protections for
sexual minorities in Colombia.

These challenges come amid growing uncertainty for LGBT activists not just in Colombia but around the
world. Beyond Latin America, countries across Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia face a growing
backlash to advances in LGBT rights. In the United States, social conservatives have sought to sanction new
forms of anti-gay discrimination under the guise of religious liberty and have a supporter in the White House
in President Donald Trump.

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20/04/2020 Why Colombia’s Peace Process Could Mean Trouble for LGBT Rights

LGBT activists who have received financial support from the U.S. find themselves in an even more
precarious situation. Colombian activists have benefited significantly from capacity-building and training
programs sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development. But the Trump
administration’s budget proposal, which it unveiled in March, aims to cut aid to Colombia by 21 percent.
With U.S. funding globally for sexual orientation and gender identity programs in doubt under Trump, LGBT
activists risk having fewer resources to fight against an ever-growing threat.

Colombia has made tremendous strides in advancing the rights of its LGBT citizens. The peace accord with
the FARC represents not only an opportunity to end more than five decades of violent conflict, but a critical
juncture in which the most vulnerable people in society can become active participants in shaping a more
just and inclusive Colombian state. Opponents of the peace accord are seeking to use LGBT rights as a red
herring to undermine that more inclusive vision for the future.

International support was instrumental in guiding the success of the peace talks in Havana. Now the
international community, including the U.S., must continue to support Colombia’s LGBT activists to ensure
that hard-won gains for LGBT people in the shadow of the country’s long war are not lost in efforts to win
the peace.

Ari Shaw is an independent researcher focusing on human rights and LGBT politics. He has a doctorate in political science from
Northwestern University and was a Fulbright scholar in Colombia from 2013 to 2014.

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