Colombia's Marcus Bachmann-look alike launches senate campaign, vote for Elizabeth Castillo instead

Javier Suarez Pascagaza might be a bachelor but he has an uncanny resemblance to Marcus Bachmann and perhaps similar proclivities.
For one, they bot think homosexuality should be cured.

Not much has been seen of leading Colombian anti-gay marriage leader Javier Suarez Pascagaza since some former seminary classmates claimed he had been thrown out of Catholic school for being gay back in November.  But the self-appointed director of the one man Husband and Woman Foundation finally emerged this week to promote a Senate campaign with some spectacular imagery straight of the very gay Pierre et Guilles cannon (see above).

This week, Suarez also denounced a re-election campaign ad by Senator Armando Benedetti featuring a gay couple and a lesbian couple in asking Colombians to be respectful of others:

Last year Senator Benedetti introduced a marriage equality bill in the Colombian Senate which was struck down by a majority.

Addressing Senator Benedetti in an interview with El Espectador published Monday Suarez said that the ad was "an affront and a threat to Colombian families and children" and said he would go to court to block it from being aired on national television.

"Two men might try to have as much sex as they want but they will never be able to get each other pregnant," he said, " and this is clear evidence that homosexuals do not have nor will ever have the same rights as those of a man and a woman."

Yes. he said that.

He also participate on a radio debate on Tuesday and responded to allegations he is a closeted gay man:

"These are opinions that come from the bottom of the barrel and have been used to attack my good name and honor as well as the prestige of the [one man] Husband and Woman Foundation with the hopes of discrediting the full authority in which we have strongly and clearly opposed [same-sex marriage] regardless of any ideological, Christian or religious basis as they have also claimed... In response to such slanderous and damaging allegations we have launched a lawsuit on my behalf for the sum of five thousand million Colombian pesos against those who made the allegations, Marcela Sanchez of [the LGBT-rights organization] Colombia Diversa and El Espectador because they have no right to play with a person's image and lobby personal attacks against someone who has simply made strong legal arguments against same-sex marriage and adoption rights for gays."

Notice that he thinks being called gay is slanderous and damaging but he never comes out and denies being gay.

Lesbian senate candidate Elizabeth Castillo (right) who was also part of the debate and happens to be one of the first women to be granted a marriage license in Colombia - despite an unsuccessful court challenge by Mr. Suarez-  put him in place:

"Mr. Suarez is prone to launching legal attacks and he does it badly," she argued, "He might claim to have gone to law school but he's not a lawyer;  he might claim he has studied theology and it might be true but he's not a theologist and the way he has used the law is an affront to legal theory; he uses 'tutelas' and lawsuits in a manner that is totally inappropriate and in ways that create total confusion. Tomorrow I could easily go and sue him for five hundred million dollars or five million dollars because I feel personally afflicted by his systematic persecution against my marriage which I might point out is still valid despite his efforts."

The main question about Mr. Suarez is not his legal abilities (he has lost every effort to challenge the few same-sex marriage licenses that have been granted in Colombia) but who is funding his one-man efforts.

He clearly has an ally in the office of the ultra-homophobic and powerful Inspector Genera; Rafael Ordoñez but it is rumored that his anti-gay efforts and senate campaigns are receiving a lot of money from U.S. based religious institutions as well.

If you would like to support a truly inclusive Colombian senate campaign, please follow Elizabeth Castillo on Twitter (here) and YouTube (here). As if it needed to be said, full disclosure, the amazing Elizabeth Castillo is a friend of mine.

Love her.

Related:

• Leading opponent of same-sex marriage in Colombia outed as a gay man (Nov. 13, 2013)

Leading opponent of same-sex marriage in Colombia outed as a gay man

"We do not see [gays] as being a family or married or an integral part of the social fabric but as needing clinical, psychiatric, medical and spiritual care, if possible, to help acknowledge their condition so that they can reverse it and recover their gender identity" - Javier Suarez Pascagaza, Director of the Husband and Wife Foundation to HSB News, October 6, 2013.

"I don't think God created homosexuals. That would be an evil God" - Javier Suarez Pascagaza, Director of the Husband and Wife Foundation to Kien y Ke, October 28, 2013.

• LEADER OF COLOMBIAN ORGANIZATION THAT SEEKS TO BLOCK MARRIAGE RIGHTS FOR SAME-SEX COUPLES AND BAN THEM FROM ADOPTING CHILDREN IS A GAY MAN, SAY FORMER JESUIT SEMINARY SCHOOL CLASSMATES
• DESPITE HAVING FILED LAWSUITS CHALLENGING DECISIONS BY A NUMBER OF CIVIL COURT JUDGES WHO HAVE GRANTED MARRIAGE LICENSES TO FOUR SAME-SEX COUPLES SINCE JULY, THOSE MARRIAGES STILL ARE LEGALLY VALID; A COURT HAD ANNULLED TWO OF THEM BASED ON MR. SUÁREZ' LAWSUITS BUT A HIGHER COURT DETERMINED HE HAD NO LEGAL STANDING AND VACATED THE LOWER COURT'S DECISION.

The see-saw battle to win marriage equality in Colombia has taken a number of surprising turns but this one takes the cake.

Meet Javier Suárez Pascagaza, director of the Husband and Wife Foundation. Nobody had heard of Mr. Suárez or his "foundation" until he surfaced in July and declared he would legally challenge any civil court judge that dare grant a same-sex couple a marriage license.

The story so far: In 2011, the Colombian constitutional court gave the country's legislature an ultimatum: Grant same-sex couples the same rights as married couples by the summer of 2013 - whether they called it marriage or something else - or else all same-sex couples would automatically earn the right to get marriage licenses.

A marriage equality bill was introduced in Congress but it was quickly voted down and the court's deadline came to pass without the legislature addressing the core issue.

As the deadline approached, the country's powerful Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez and the director of the agency that oversaw all notaries came up with a ploy to block same-sex marriages: They invented a contract called a "solemn union" and directed all notary officers to use it anytime a same-sex couple approached them and asked for a marriage license.  The Inspector General's office also sent private memos to all notaries ordering them to keep track of every same-sex couple who asked for a marriage license and report it back to his office.

Marriage equality advocates saw through the strategy and took a different route: They urged same-sex couples to avoid heading to the notaries and instead they advised them to go before a civil court judge.  A notary officer had full discretion in denying a marriage license without having to explain the decision while a civil court judge had to explain their decision in writing and a negative decision could potentially be appealed.

Gonzalo Rincón and Carlos Hernando Rivera

The strategy worked.

On July 24th, a civil court judge declared Gonzalo Rincón and Carlos Hernando Rivera united in matrimony although she stopped short of calling it a marriage.

Then on September 20th, a different civil court judge granted Julio Albeiro Cantor Borbón and William Alberto Castro Franco a marriage contract.

On September 25th another civil court judge granted a marriage license to Claudia Zea and Elizabeth Castillo in what became front page news ("Marriage equality is a fact" declared El Espectador).

And, finally, on October 4th, Adriana González y Marcela Rojas were also granted a marriage license.

The rise of the Husband and Wife Foundation: These four victories also saw the sudden emergence of a brand new organization called the Husband and Wife Foundation and its director Javier Suárez Pascagaza.

After news of the first marriage emerged, Suárez announced himself as the head of the brand new foundation and vowed to take these judges to court and, at least initially, he was successful in getting a court to invalidate two of the four marriages.

Thankfully, legal advocates for the LGBT-rights organization Colombia Diversa challenged that ruling in higher court and won. Mr. Suárez was found not to have legal standing to launch the lawsuit which means that as of today all four marriages remain with legal standing.

In the meantime a Noticias UNO investigation of the foundation revealed that only two people were listed as officers - Mr. Suárez and his military brother Carlos Suárez Pascagaza - and its mission was to "promote the moral, ethic and religious morals of the family" despite many public assurances that the organization was not a religious institution. The investigation also also revealed closer ties to the Inspector General's office than Mr. Suárez had previously admitted (see full Spanish language video below)

Of all these charges, Mr. Suárez has expressed particular vehemence about allegations his foundation is in any way influenced by religion and has threatened to sue anyone who claims otherwise.

But in interviews he has repeatedly used the language of the religious right against gays: That gays cannot marry because they cannot procreate, that they need psychiatric attention to reverse their identity and that there is no way God created gays and lesbians because if that was the case God would be an evil entity.

Religion was also front and center at an October 8th rally in the town of Gachetá which drew more than 100 church-affiliated town members and was led by Mr. Suárez.

Participants, among them priests and nuns, carried signs reading "God created a man and a woman," "No more gay marriages in Gachetá" and "Catholic Gachetá deserves respect" and congregated outside the offices of Judge Julio Gonzalez who had granted a marriage license to Claudia Zea and Elisabeth Castillo just days before.

Judge Gonzalez took to Twitter the next day to denounce the attempt at intimidation.

gacheta se alza contra los matrimonios igualitarios protestas públicas protagonizadas por párrocos e iglesias evangélicas @ColombiaDiversa
— julio Gonzalez H (@dedth33) October 9, 2013

"Gachetá rises against marriage equality, public protests with priests and evangelical churches as protagonists," he wrote.

A local newspaper caught up to Mr. Suárez during the religious rally and he happily confirmed he wanted to send a strong message to other judges considering granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Mr. Suárez, outed: As it turns out, for a man who seemingly appeared out of thin air last July Mr. Suárez has a past.

In an interview published today in El Espectador, a former classmate of Mr. Suárez alleges that the man who now leads the Husband and Wife Foundation was kicked out from their Jesuit school for being gay.

Raúl Quintana, who also identifies as a gay man, says that it was clear to everyone at school that Mr. Suárez was gay and that he once heard him openly express his attraction to another man. Quintana alleges that he was open about his sexual identity and that the priests at the school were OK with it but that what bothered them and led to Mr. Suárez being kicked out was that he was being dishonest about it.

Asked about why he chose to come forward now, Quintano says:

"I can't stand the hypocrisy that almost always exists behind acts of homophobia. One day I read that a foundation had been created against marriage rights for gays and when I saw the name of Javier Suárez I did not associate it with that of my former classmate... Pascagaza, we used to call him by his last name because we thought it was funny. It left me cold so I decided to call Colombia Diversa and expose the double morality. Suárez has the least authority to point his finger at us."

For corroboration of some of these facts, El Espectador also interviewed John Jairo Jácome, a reporter for La Opinión in Cucuta who says he was also one of Mr. Suárez' classmates at the Jesuit school.

Mr. Jácome says that most students knew which of the other students and priests were gay. "Who was I to judge [Mr. Suárez] for the mere fact he was part of a group I did not belong in, since I am straight."

He says that as long as students and priests remained chaste, the Jesuit school was actually pretty welcoming of people who identified as gay and he argues that in leading the fight against gay rights Mr. Suárez is actually turning his back on the tolerant teachings of the Jesuit school.

Mr. Jácome after he left the school and Mr. Suárez was let go he heard from others that Mr. Suárez traveled to the United States to work with a church interested in expanding their role in Latin America.

"You have to know that he comes from a very poor family," Mr. Jácome says, "Someone must be funding him because you need money to lead a foundation and launch lawsuits."

UPDATE: W Radio interviewed Mr. Suárez on Nov. 11th, 2013 and asked him about the allegations. In the audio, Mr. Suárez confirms he once sought to become a priest but abandoned that route, he made it clear he had agreed to the interview as long as he was not asked questions about his personal life, said that blaming someone as being gay was a common ploy by LGBT rights activists but ultimately did not disclose whether he was gay or not (full 20 minute Spanish-language audio here).

He also indicated he was considering filing lawsuits against anyone who was spreading "false" information about him. Interestingly he focused on the fact people were alleging his organization was religious rather than the allegation he might be gay.

VIDEO: Noticias UNO exposes the religious and political ties of the Husband and Wife Foundation and its director Javier Suárez (in Spanish).

Colombia: Lesbians protest invisibility at annual breast cancer awareness walk

When members of the Colombian lesbian organization Toque Lésbico found out that the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer would take place this past Sunday through the streets of Bogotá, they realized that it would be a great opportunity to participate as an organization and highlight
the high incidence of breast cancer in the lesbian community.

Using drums to create music at public events as a way to raise the visibility of the lesbian community, the organization reached out to the organizers of the march to make sure that they could participate and bring their instruments. According to a member of Toque Lésbico, the woman who answered their calls first said that "they did not get involved with issues related to diversity" but that she would check with Avon as to whether the organization could march. She called them back and reiterated that they "did absolutely get involved with issues related to diversity and that if they wanted to participate they could show up with their drums but without anything that alluded to sexual diversity."

The march representative also told the women that they would not be allowed to carry any signs, banners, or shirts that made any reference to the name of the organization.

What to do? Well, protest! Of course. My friend Mauricio Albarracín attended yesterday's protest as a supporter and captured some clips. In this one, marchers carrying pink balloons stop and take pictures of the drummers as they holler their appreciation.



Marcela Sanchez, Director of the larges LGBT rights organization in Colombia, Colombia Diversa, and a Toque Lésbico member, said that the objective of the civil protest was more than met.

I think we met the Toque Lésbico objective, which is lesbian visibility. To set our stand before the discrimination to which we were subjected, because the directives from Avons said that we could not participate in the march if we brought lesbian symbols, or titles of 'lesbians', or anything that alluded to the theme of diversity. I believe that people were able to see our message, it could have been entertaining [to them], they understood that we could also protest with music and drums.

During the protest, the women raised a banner that read: "Breast cancer does not discriminate against lesbians, and you? ... AND AVON?"

Reaction from march participants and the public seemed to be overwhelmingly positive and supportive of Toque Lésbico.

The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Colombia is one of many similar events championed worldwide by the Avon Foundation for Women as a way to raise awareness and funds towards defeating the illness, with upcoming marches in Los Angeles, New York and Boston, among other US cities.

But, in the United States, there seems to be no Avon qualms about 'sexual diversity' or lesbian issues. This year, as in past years, the foundation awarded grants to the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington. DC, specifically earmarked for the care of lesbian and transgender women.

Related:

• Toque Lésbico Facebook page here
  
• Lesbians also have breasts and get cancer: Lesbian resistance (Spanish-language, AG Magazine, Aug. 22, 2009)

Previously:

• A gathering of Latin American LGBT advocates in Los Angeles (spot Mauricio & Marcela!)

A gatherng of Latin American LGBT advocates in Los Angeles

A bunch of Colombians and a Brazilian (L to R: Germán Humberto Rincón Perfetti, Lucas Paoli Itabothany, Andrés Duque, Mauricio Albarracín, José Fernando Serrano Amaya and - in front - Alejandra Azurero and Marcela Sánchez)

It's been a month since I attended the "Global Arc of Justice: Sexual Orientation Law Around the World" conference at UCLA's School of Law, and I am still thrilled at having been there. The conference, organized on an annual basis by The Williams Institute and the International Lesbian and Gay Law Association brings together the leading international legal advocates working on LGBT rights.

And, certainly, there was a virtual who's who among the top legal LGBT advocates in the United States, which included Freedom to Marry's Evan Wolfson; former International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission ED Paula Ettelbrick; Scott Long, Director of the LGBT Division at Human Rights Watch; Shannon Minter, Legal Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights; Julie Dorf, Director of the Council for Global Equality; and Nan Hunter, Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, among others.

But what was truly unique about the conference was that, for the first time ever, the focus was on Latin America. This meant that there was just as stellar a gathering of LGBT rights advocates from the region as those from the US, including a few friends who I had not seen in years, and people I had heard about but never met before.

Among the people I got to meet was Judge Karen Atala from Chile (left). In 2004, in a case that made international news, Judge Atala lost custody of three daughters from a previous marriage when Chile's Supreme Court ruled that her current relationship with a woman was not in the children's interest. The case is currently on appeal before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission and several US LGBT and human rights organizations have filed an amicus brief in her support.

Then there was Tamara Adrian Hérnandez (pictured right, next to José Ramón Merentes Corréa of Venezuela's Unión Afirmativa who I also greatly admire). Ms. Adrian is a firebrand attorney and law professor from Venezuela whose work has shaped the inclusion of LGBT rights language in the Ecuadorian and Bolivian constitutions, even as her own government has resisted them.

Also present: Olga Orraca-Paredes, one of the leading LGBT rights activists from Puerto Rico, founder of the Lesbian Creative Workshop and one of the organizers of the annual LGBT pride parades in San Juan, who I hadn't seen in almost a decade. It was surreal to be able to share a couple of breakfasts with Olga and to share thoughts on Latino LGBT organizing after all these years.

Here, Olga is standing next to another of my heroes, Susel Paredes Piqué (right), an attorney who founded Perú's LGBT Legal Association.

Recently, I wrote about a transgender sex worker in Tarapoto, Perú, being beaten up and humiliated on national television. Well, Susel and her organization are among those providing support to the victim, and I was glad to have an opportunity to talk to her about the case and to find out that the woman was receiving good legal advice and supportive services.

Which brings us to transgender Argentinian expatriate Mónica León (who currently lives in France), and Peruvian transgender activist Belissa Andía Perez (pictured below).

Both are subjects of documentaries exposing the harshness of living life as transgender advocates in their respective countries. And it was particularly moving to watch each film after having hung out with them for a couple of days and getting to know them.

In "En El Fuego" Ms. Perez (right), Transgender Secretariat to the ILGA Executive Board and founder of the trans-right organization Claveles Rojos in Peru, speaks about the long path to being accepted by her family and her own struggle to figure out what it means to be a transgender person in Peru (Claveles Rojos is the lead agency providing support to the Tarapoto victim).

In the amazing "Hotel Gondolín", Ms. León (above, left) is shown taking control over an abandoned apartment building inhabited by transgender sex workers. She institutes a series of unorthodox 'house rules' meant to decrease drug-addiction and improve their living environment (i.e. demanding huge 'rent' penalties for those caught taking drugs), and also organizes them to lobby the Buenos Aires City Council for a law that will decrease police persecution of sex-workers by deregulating certain areas of the city. Wherever you stand on the issue of decriminalizing prostitution, it is amazing to see this woman's efforts to improve the life of such a marginalized community.

I also met the other Andrés at the conference, Andrés Ignacio Rivera Duarte from Chile, and we got along famously (that's the two Andreses on the left).

I believe he is still spreading rumors in Chile about my non-religious upbringing and the Chinese Revolution coloring books that I used to paint as a kid.

Last year, along with South African Bishop Desmond Tutu and the Iranian Queer Organization, Andrés was one of the recipients last year of the prestigious Felipa de Souza award given by IGLHRC for global LGBT advocacy.

He was recognized as the founder of Organización de Transexuales por la Dignidad - the first non-governmental transgender rights organization in his country - and for his groundbreaking work on trans rights issues in one of the most socially conservative countries in South America.

But wait! There is more!

Colombia Diversa was in the house! Which meant that I had the opportunity to see my good friends Marcela Sánchez, Germán Humberto Rincón Perfetti, Mauricio Albarracín and attorney Alejandra Azurero (see top pic). They, of course, were part of the team who build the strategy that resulted in the series of rulings by the Colombian Constitutional Court granting most of the rights enjoyed by heterosexual married partners to same-sex couples.

The four, along with José Fernando Serrano, did a presentation on the advances in Colombia which was attended perhaps by fifteen, maybe twenty people, tops. And yet, as I looked at these young advocates I couldn't help but to feel awe.

In every single respect they - and the folk I have described above - are the Evan Wolfsons, Shannon Minters and Paula Ettelbricks of Latin America. On some areas, they have been able to bring more advances in LGBT rights in their home countries than some of the best advocates in the United States (not so much in other areas). So forgive Germán for standing up at a closing-day Prop. 8 panel - rather dramatically - to take his turn in criticising the failed California "No on Prop. 8" strategy from a Colombian point of view (with the helpful assistance of a woofy translator).

As for woofyness, Argentinian Supreme Court Justice Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni? OMG! (Down boys, he was at the conference as an ally).

And I have certainly only mentioned just a sampling of the conference and not given nearly a complete overview of how great it was! I must thank, though, David B. Cruz from USC and Brad Sears from The Williams Institute (as well as Saúl Sarabia from UCLA Law School) for putting together this amazing and historic gathering.

The Williams Institute actually has pdf files which summarize the daily happenings during the conference here, here and here. They also have posted photos here.

My personal photo album can be found here.

Colombia: International calls for justice in murder of Alvaro Miguel Rivera

In the last few days, a few of the leading international human rights and LGBT rights advocacy organizations have released statements demanding that Colombian authorities properly investigate and resolve the March 6th murder of 41 year old Álvaro Miguel Rivera (pictured right) in the city of Cali.

They include:

• The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), which is based in France [Spanish language statement].
• The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (CIDH) of the Organization of American States (OEA), which is based in Washington, DC [Spanish language statement].
• Spain's National LGBT Federation (FELGBT) [Spanish language statement].
• And, last but not least, the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), which released a statement also backed by Human Rights Watch [English language statement which includes a sample letter you can send to Colombian authorities].
  

To his credit, Jorge Iván Ospina, Cali's Mayor (pictured left), held a community town hall meeting on March 12th, six days after Rivera was found murdered and before most international organizations released their statements.

According to Cali's El Pais, Ospina announced that his office would give $20 million pesos (approx. $8,300 dollars) to anyone willing to give information leading to the capture of Rivera's killers.

Ospina also announced that his office would create a task force to address hate crimes against the LGBT population and not only when it came to murder investigations.

He also acknowledged that police authorities under his command might not be the most enlightened public force authorities, but argued that his office was trying to make things better, and said that authorities were still investigating the murders of dozens of transgender individuals named by Colombia Diversa.

El Tiempo also covered the town hall meeting and says that not everyone welcomed the Mayor's overtures. Pedro Julio Pardo, a member of a transgender rights organization in Cali called the Santa Maria Foundation, criticized the fact that it took Rivera's murder for the Mayor's office to take any action when he said that different organizations had spent months asking them to respond to the increasing number of murders, particularly in the transgender community.

Pardo said that, in the past two years, 22 transgender women have been found murdered and another 33 had reported being attacked and asked the Mayor to develop specific public policies to address the situation.

In the end, the Mayor and several LGBT community advocates agreed to form a "dialogue table" and to engage in follow-up meetings to develop an appropriate response to these crimes.

Previously:

• In Alvaro Rivera's murder, advocates demand hate crime investigation (March 10, 2009)
• A hero murdered (March 8, 2009)

Colombia: In Alvaro Rivera's murder, advocates demand hate crime investigation

Colombia Diversa, the largest LGBT rights advocacy organization in Colombia, has released a strong statement condemning last Friday's violent murder of LGBT rights activist Alvaro Miguel Rivera in the city of Cali, and demanded that authorities investigate whether it was a hate crime:

One of the founders of the LGBT movement in the country, Alvaro Miguel Rivera Linares, was murdered this past March 6th. Colombia Diversa demands an exhaustive investigation of this and the other cases in which the victims are LGBT individuals, and particularly those that show signs of homophobia.

Colombia Diversa demands that the corresponding authorities that they investigate the murder of Alvaro Miguel Rivera Linares exhaustively, as a renown defender of LGBT human rights and of people living with HIV.

Specifically, we ask that during the investigation it be entertained and verified whether there exist homophobic motivations of hate and prejudice, for his work as a defender, for the sexual orientation of Alvaro Rivera, and for the inhuman and cruel way in which he was murdered.

Alvaro Miguel dedicated a great part of his life to defend LGBT rights, reason why he was threatened on various occasions, and for which he even had to escape his hometown. Nonetheless, it is feared that the corresponding authorities might hurry to indicate other causes for the murder and might play down or ignore proof of homophobia, as has occurred with many similar cases.

Cruelty and impunity in Cali

There is worry about serious instances of prejudicial violence against the LGBT population in Cali, a situation which Colombia Diversa - along the Santa Maria Foundation - have reported for years. As it has been able to be established, the murder of Alvaro Miguel Rivera occurs in a context of generalized violence against the LGBT population, specifically in sectors of the city such as, among others, Loma de la Cruz, where there are registered instances of police abuse and arbitrary detentions, specially against the transgender community.

As the organization has warned, the authorities in charge regularly rush their conclusions on the motivations for the murder of an LGBT individual, particularly for personal prejudice and a lack of specialization in these kind of crimes, and confuse them with "crimes of passion", which not only blames the victim but also minimizes social responsibility for these acts.

In addition to this, the passivity and omission state entities in the City of Cali is it is evident when faced by this situation, even though it involves the public authorities.

For this reason Colombia Diversa announces it's concern and condemnation against the murder of Alvaro Miguel Rivera, as well as for the level of violence that exists in Cali towards the LGBT population. At the same time, it invites all the civil society organizations to express their rejection against these situations. In particular, we call on the following local and state authorities in Valle and Cali:

* Valle del Cauca Governor's Office
* Cali Mayor's Office
* Cali Police Department
* The Director of the local Cali Prosecution Office
* Regional Ombudsman for Valle del Cauca
* Cali public servants

We ask of these authorities that they:

1. That, in their investigative hypothesis, they consider Alvaro Miguel Rivera Linares' work as a defender of the human rights of the LGBT population as a possible motivation for the murder - and the context of violence against the LGBT community in Cali.

2. That they take prompt and effective actions to stop and prevent violence against the LGBT community in Cali, specially by the own public authorities of the city.

At the same time, Colombia Diversa urges the authorities on a national level to initiate investigative inquiries into the murder of LGBT human rights activists, as well as the other 67 deaths, confirmed by Colombia Diversa, between 2006 and 2007, in Colombia.

- Maurico Noguera, Colombia Diversa ( mnoguera @ colombiadiversa.com )

Colombia Diversa follows statements made by activists and friends who knew Alvaro in Cali (the YouTube video above, for which I have provided an onscreen translation, was broadcast on Saturday by Noticias Uno) demanding that the crime be investigated as a hate crime. In it, the Ombudsman of the City of Cali also demands an investigation of whether it was a hate crime.

In the meantime, as upset as I was about the murder of someone I admired, the details were what made things much worse. Today El Tiempo published the additional information I'd been keeping to myself:

Alvaro Miguel was found in his apartment tied to a bed, with blows to his body, which were probably produced by a stick or a bat, and with his teeth broken. The apartment had been trashed, as if the assailants were seeking something, but there was not one thing missing.

I was also told that his hands and mouth were also bound by duct-tape, which indicates to me that there was some planning to the murder.

Alvaro's murder has been receiving some international attention - and rightfully so - let's hope that the result is that his murderers are brought to justice.

Previously:

• Colombia: A hero murdered (March 8, 2009)

Alvaro Miguel Rivera Linares in his own words (Spanish):

Colombia Diversa on yesterday's landmark ruling granting equal rights to same-sex couples

I am still wrapping my brain around yesterday's ruling by the Constitutional Court in Colombia.

Reading the first news brief that appeared online in El Tiempo, it promised less than the article's title implied: "Full recognition from Constitutional Court to same-sex partners."

Yes, the Court had ruled that a series of rights afforded to long term heterosexual partners should be also granted to long term same-sex partners BUT it seemed to stop short of granting civil union or common-law union status (unlike a blurb at The Advocate online implies today).

In fact, I consciously decided not to translate the article's title in my post yesterday because I wanted to make sure that I wasn't misreading the information before calling it a "full recognition" of same-sex partnerships.

Well, after translating the statement below and discussing the ruling with Colombia Diversa's director Marcela Sánchez, I have come to realize that this is much bigger than I originally thought particularly outside a framework that puts same-sex marriage as a measure of full equality.

In fact, Marcela is quoted today by El Tiempo stating that the ruling gives same-sex couples in Colombia "equality".

"We are not putting ourselves above others, instead we were putting [ourselves] as equals," she says, "They are not additional rights but the same (as those of heterosexuals)."

In a brief e-mail exchange I asked if it was truly "equality" and she said "Yes, it is equality; We have all the rights of a common-law union, minus adoption."

She also told me that the organizations that brought the lawsuit before the court made a conscious decision to specifically ask for the rights and not for civil or common-law unions which is the reason why the court did not pronounce itself on those matters.

So, here is a concept: Colombian same-sex partners, following a series of High Court rulings including the one announced yesterday, probably enjoy more rights than same-sex couples in any other Latin American nation with the exception - perhaps - of Uruguay which approved civil unions in December of 2007 - and yet they have achieved this without having yet been granted civil marriage or common-law marriage status?

Just amazing and it speaks to the hard work of hundreds of LGBT advocates throughout Colombian history including my friends Germán Humberto Rincón Perfetti and Manuel Antonio Velandia Mora who did so much in the a980's and 1990's to bring equal rights issues to the forefront in Colombia.

Through their efforts, as well as hat of many others, different same-sex partnership bills have come close to being adopted by the county's legislature (the last one was rejected by the Senate in October of 2008). With yesterday's ruling, passage of such a bill seems predestined.

---
Colombia Diversa, the leading LGBT rights organization in Colombia and one of the organizations that asked the Constitutional Court to determine whether same-sex partners should enjoy all the rights of heterosexual partners, released the following statement on yesterday's landmark ruling (I have translated it from the Spanish language original):

CONSTITUTIONAL COURT RULES FOR EQUALITY

Historic ruling by the Constitutional Court in Colombia recognizes equality between heterosexual common law partners and those of the same sex.

Today, January 27, 2009, the Constitutional Court brought the country one step forward - a fundamental one - in matters of human rights. The High Tribunal acknowledged that a number of civil, political, social, economic, criminal and immigration rights, among others - previously reserved for heterosexual couples, also apply to same-sex couples.

In this way, Colombia has made progress in fulfilling its international commitment to incorporate Equality into its domestic legal norms, on behalf of a population that has historically been vulnerable due to their sexual orientation. Eighteen years after the enactment of the 1991 Constitution, [promoting] equality between all people, this principle has effectively been by lifting a series of limitations in Colombia that weighed down on rights, depending to the sexual orientation of individuals.

It was confirmed that equal rights cannot allow qualifications, nor exceptions nor mitigating circumstances that depend on sexual orientation.

Plaintiffs

The path that led to the Court's recent ruling began with a lawsuit. On April 28, 2008, Colombia Diversa, The Law, Justice and Society Study Center (Dejusticia), and The Public Interest Rights Group of the University of Los Andes, filed a lawsuit seeking equal rights between permanent partners, heterosexual and homosexual, and thus eliminate all forms of discrimination.

The lawsuit was actively supported by a diverse group of 32 human rights organizations, most of which do not represent an exclusive advocacy for LGBT rights. Such was the case with Human Rights Watch, the Colombian Commission of Jurists and Sisma Woman among many others (see list). Their primary interest was to bring domestic legislation in Colombia closer to a genuine concept of Equality.

Rights and responsibilities recognized

Specifically, it was a claim of inconstitutionality en masse against a series of laws that guarantee these rights and responsibilities to unmarried heterosexual couples, so that same-sex couples could be included as beneficiaries.

The plaintiffs asked the Court to extend the protections inherent in all rights afforded to heterosexual partners in a common-law union, to same sex-couples. At the same time, there was a request for the same order of duties and responsibilities for both types of couples.

In short, the rights and responsibilities that were demanded and recognized by the Court are related to:

• Civil rights norms which establish limitations to the access and exercise of civil service and the establishment of contracts with the State.
• Civil and political rights, such as housing protections, so that the so-called 'family patrimony' cannot be seized and [establishes] joint family housing rights [la afectación de vivienda familiar].
• Access to a Colombian nationality, and residence in the department of San Andres and Providencia.
• The right to benefits, allowances and compensation measures of a social nature in favor of same-sex couples.
• This is the case with the special social security norms that apply to public law enforcement, family allowance, family allowance for housing, subsidies for rural access to property, and indemnity coverage for death in a traffic accident of a permanent partner.
• Crime punishment and prevention norms, misconduct and the guarantee not to incriminate a partner.
• Rights for permanent partners of victims of heinous crimes.

Here is how EFE breaks it down:

The ruling means that property of homosexual couples that is considered part of the family possessions, including the home, can not be embargoed or distrained.

On the other hand, if a foreigner enters into a same-sex union with a Colombian in Colombia, he or she may obtain Colombian citizenship if and when that union has been under way for more than two consecutive years.

Members of same-sex couples cannot be forced to testify against their partners.

Regarding public officials, when one takes the oath of office, that person's same-sex partner - if any - will also take the office.

Update: Former right-wing congressman Victor Velazquez is incensed! From Colombia Reports (based on this article from El Espectador)

Former congressman Victor Velasquez petitioned the high court to reverse its ruling, accusing the Court it is out of line and should leave legislation about gay rights to Congress.

Velasquez called on the Catholic Church to denounce the ruling and wants a referendum held to let the Colombian people reverse what "undermines the morale of the country."

"With this decision the Court wants to put the country in reverse; the countries that ruled in favor of homosexuals are left without population, because two men and two women can't reproduce," the former lawmaker told the press.

Related:

• Colombia's Highest Court mandates equal rights for same-sex couples (LeonardLink)
  
• Colombia's Constitutional Court grants gay couples full equal rights (Colombia Reports)

Best Spanish language articles so far on yesterday's court ruling...

• Colombia: Gays with additional rights (BBC Mundo, Jan. 29, 2009)
• Colombia: La Justicia ampía los derechos de las parejas hmosexuales (AG Magazine, Jan. 29, 2009)
  

Colombia: Student who was kicked out of high school for being a lesbian speaks up against discrimination

• UPDATE: Just today the Fifth Circuit Civil Court in Manizales, where the ruling was being appealed, not only agreed that principal Magola Franco had erred in dismissing the students but ordered the Department of Education of Manizales to institute obligatory curriculum language that educates students on human rights on gender issues with a focus on sexual diversity ("The Courts of Manizales ratifies court ruling in favor of lesbian minors," Caracol Radio, June 4, 2008).
  

[NOTE: The heartbreaking part about this interview is that the high-school student and her girlfriend are still being shunned by their school-mates even as they both seem determined to finish their high school education at the school. If you would like to send them a supportive message please send me your message to blabbeando @ gmail.com and I will try to get it to them]

In late April, I shared a shocking video of what happened in Manizales, Colombia, when a court determined that two students had been unfairly kicked-out of an all-girls high school because they were lesbians ("Allowed back in school by court order, lesbian students are heckled by student body, school principal").

News cameras caught the students as they walked into the Leonardo da Vinci High School to register for classes and were faced by most of the student body shouting "We don't want you!" at them while expressing support for the school principal.

In that video, the faces of the two students were blurred digitally to protect their identity but now one of them has decided to speak-up and show her face. The interview was broadcast on an investigative late night news show called El Radar on Colombia's Caracol Television. Unfortunately there are no subtitles but here is a translation (the interview proper begins at the :44 second mark).

Maria Elvira Samper: Jenny, first of all, welcome to "The Radar."
Jenny Viviana Rendon: Thanks
MES: I want to reiterate a [deep sense] of admiration for the courage and valor in showing your face [despite] a society as full of prejudice as ours is. I want to tell you that you should feel at ease, that if there is a question that bothers you it is not my intention to bother you and that if you don't want to answer it, don't answer it...
When did you decide to tell your parents that it wasn't as they wanted you to be - or how society or your classmates or your friends or your family - wanted you to be.
JVR: When my mom said to me, my mom said to me: 'You have to tell him.'
MES: Did you tell your mom first?
JVR: She figured it out... and then - once she knew - she told me "Tell your dad or I will tell him." And so I - It's me with the problem - so I will tell him.
MES: That is not your 'problem'...
JVR: Ah! Good...
MES: That is not your problem. A whole other thing is for society to see it as a problem; Have you felt... was it difficult, let's say, was it very difficult...?
JVR: [nodding 'yes'] Too difficult...
MES: Is it a united family? Is it a warm family? Has it made it easier... Have they made it easier for you all this process of integration - a little bit- or to confront a situation that I imagine became very difficult at the school when you decided - or when they told you that you were not accepted [a clip is shown of the girls walking into the school as their school mates shout against them].
JVR: Well, yes. They not only have provided me with huge [support]. I think that if it wasn't for family, one would not have the valor to show up like this.
MES: In this process have you counted with psychological assistance, with a counselor, with a schoolmate, other than your family?
JVR: We have gotten unconditional support from the Public Advocate's Office.
MES: How are your school mates with you, how have they welcomed... Did they know, let's say?
JVR: Yes. All of them...
MES: And did you feel rejected?
JVR: Very much so.
MES: Your teachers?
JVR: Well. Very well.
MES: Have you found more understanding coming from your teachers than from your school-mates?
JVR: Yes..
MES: Do you have friends to whom you feel at ease talking, with whom you feel comfortable, or do you always feel looked at differently, as if you are being questioned, or..
JVR: No.
MES: Do you feel as comfortable at school as in your home?
JVR: [Opens up eyes and reacts emotionally] Uh, no...
MES: No.
JVR: I do feel more pressure at school but I do have a friend. A friend that helps me a lot and with her... If we sit down to talk about this, it's very normal for the both of us.
MES: And the family of that friend greets you normally?
JVR: Yes, the day of the court ruling they cried with us and everything.
MES: Have they mistreated you - eh - psychologically in any way at school, for example?
JVR: Well, I think that a mistreatment was the day of the protest. That day we felt very, very awful.
MES: And who do you attribute for that [more clips are shown from the video shot on that day]. Do you feel that considering teachers that were understanding with you, the principal was not?
JVR: It's that the protest was done in the morning, we study in the afternoon. And so, the morning teachers had nothing to do with us.
MES: Do you think that the protest was orchestrated, was spontaneous...
JVR: I can't say that 'Yes! it was for.. It was organized' but... I believe it was [the high school principal has denied that she had any role in orchestrating a protest despite the banners, the students' vocal defense of her decision to remove the students and the fact that students had access to the school's intercom system].
MES: OK, after you were accepted back in school, has there been any changes or do you continue to feel that you are a bit isolated.
JVR: No, well, we both are isolated because it's only the two of us. The two of us in the classroom. The two of us during the school-breaks. The two of us for everything. Because we don't talk to anyone.
MES: But is it because the rest do not want to talk to you or because you feel a bit inhibited because you feel that there is a kind of fence.
JVR: No. We have always been very social. We have been group leaders. We have been very dynamic all these years and this year we feel more distant...
MES: What grade are you in?
JVR: 10th [equivalent to being a junior at a US high-school].
MES: You almost... on the verge of graduating. Outside of school do you find more tolerance?
JVR: [Shrugs] It's that it's so weird because one find people that say 'No, that's normal, it's silly' but then one encounters reality, it's not like that.
MES: Do you think that - from now on - things will be easier or more difficult?
JVR: [Cringes] Uh, I don't know.
MES: Are you scared? Are you fearful...
JVR: Yes, a lot
MES: What is it that you fear.
JVR: I have fear because if I was rejected for something they already knew... and with someone who was... well, that we were together... that they studied with me all the time... and I was rejected... and so I don't know if I will be rejected in the future... I don't know what kind of people I will meet in the future...
MES: Have you cried a great deal during this process?
JVR: No.
MES: Very macha!
JVR: I cried on the first day but late at night when I was already in bed but I didn't cry nor in front of them nor have I cried as if I am just about to die or that I let depression take over me, no.
MES: What would you say to parents of children like you that don't... that have left their children abandoned.
JVR: That they should get involved a little bit. That they get a little bit involved on the issue. Because if they get involved, or better said, if they try to feel like one feels sometimes, perhaps they will understand. I believe that my dad... my dad is a person with a very open mind.
MES: Who is your father.
JVR: He is an administrative assistant. But he has worked with many things and that probably helps him.
MES: Did you find more understanding from your dad, from your mom, or from both equally?
JVR: From both.
MES: And your siblings? There wasn't any shock, nothing?
JVR: No, well... let me tell you... eh, my mom at first was very stern.
MES: Why.
JVR: Well, it was harder for her because I am her little girl and everything.
MES: How were you able to get your mom - because you understand her a little bit and her reaction - how were you able to get her to lower her guard a little bit - to say it that way - and to get to the point, the point in which you are right now. Did you do something or was it an internal process when it came to your mother?
JVR: Well, I think she put a lot of herself in it, but I would speak to her normally. I would tell her 'No, but my girl friend...' or something like that. I would mention the girl's name and would speak to her normally. Something that one day she would have to understand.
MES: At school did someone find out before this was known publicly?
JVR: Yes. All my friends. 'Quote Unquote.'
MES: Well, I agree with you. Between quotation marks. And did they do... did they say something, did they have discriminatory attitudes...
JVR: No. That is what is bizarre. That when I was with them all of them said "Go ahead. Go forward. We love you both.' Well, we were always together. I think that they all acted in mass.
MES: Do you think that there are more people like this?
JVR: Yes I do.
MES: And you know them.
JVR: [Smiles] Yes.
MES: After all these things have you have an opportunity to talk intimately or personally, privately, with the [school] principal who, by all appearances, seemed to be the harshest person in all this process?
JVR: No.
MES: You don't even want to see her in a painting? [a common Colombian expression determining disdain]
JVR: No! It's not like that. To me it's all the same.
MES: Don't you want to communicate with her? Don't you want to tell her anything?
JVR: No! Well - She thinks in a different way than we and many other people do.
MES: Wouldn't you ask her - in that sense - 'I respect what your thoughts are, please respect who I am'?
JVR: We said that to her on many occasions. No, she doesn't...
MES: And what does it mean to return to a school that did to you what it did to you.
JVR: No, it doesn't matter. Because the school and I - not for the principal - but I love my school. I was born there. I have been there since 6th grade. So I have a strong feeling of belonging with the school and I don't care.
MES: And are you ready to continue fighting in this year that is left...
JVR: And in the next one as well..
MES: And in the next one that is left to seek more acceptance, more tolerance, more respect for you or people who are like you?
JVR: Yes, I think that after a little bit of time, things will calm down and we will get back... yes! to carry on normally, and to continue being the same ones as before, if God allows.
MES: He, if... Well, Jenny. You don't know how us at El Radar thank you for being with us. We hope that this show and what you have said will serve so many people and help so many people that perhaps - as people say - are inside the closet going through very difficult moments and we hope that there are many parents such as yours that can make of people such as you happy beings.
JVR: Many thanks to you.

After the interview the show's anchorman explains that while Jenny decided to go on camera with her parents consent, the parents of her girlfriend felt it was better for their daughter not to speak on camera. She still was in the studio, sitting near Jenny, as she was interviewed for the show.

Colombia: 1st day back in class for high school lesbians who were booted out

Right: "'Degrees' of intolerance" by Colombian editorial cartoonist Ricky from today's editorial page of the Manizales newspaper La Patria. The caption bubble reads - "And they say that Leonardo Da Vinci was gay"

Yesterday was the first day back in school for the two lesbian high-school students who were booted out back in February but allowed to go back by court order.

The case has drawn the national attention not the least because of this extraordinary video captured on Thursday when the students registered for class.

Getting most of the heat has been Leonardo Da Vinci High School principal Magola Franco Pérez who stood by as more than 700 students heckled the two girls as they registered last week holding anti-gay signs and banners and and shouting "We don't want you!" against the girls and "We want Magola" in support of the principal (the principal continues to argue that it was a "spontaneous" demonstration over which she had no control although she admits that some students mysteriously gained access to the schools PA system and were able to lead the chants).

She had threatened to resign if the two young women were ever allowed to return to the school (she didn't) and late today she began legal proceedings - AGAIN - against both students arguing that they should not be allowed back in school based on a technicality: She says the girls signed the incorrect registration forms (hm, I wonder who made sure they didn't sign the right forms). Yes, folks! Despite the court order she is trying her damnest to get rid of the two students.

Colombian Senator Armando Benedetti officially submitted a complaint against the principal with the national Attorney General's office as well as against Manizales Mayor Juan Manuel Llano Uribe for allowing the anti-gay protests in light of a court order that determined that the two students were dismissed based on discrimination. He also asked for the dismissal of principal Franco Pérez. This according to an article published in La Patria today ("The Da Vinci, to learn from tolerance").

For his part, Mayor Llano Uribe says that Benedetti is overreacting since he does not know the facts and defending the rights of the other students to protest since he deems that it was OK for them to defend themselves from the perception that they were all lesbians.

In addition to reporting on the issue and running the political cartoon above, La Patria also ran two opinion columns that supported the students' rights to return to class.

In "The sin is to be a lesbian" columnist Martin Franco V. says:

What we experience with this case is nothing more than an acid test on tolerance: Students at the high school have to learn to respect the sexual tastes of their schoolmates, in the same way that the reintegrated students should understand that they can live their sexuality without a problem, as long as and whenever they do not bother or transcend the limits of those that surround them. But to judge a person for their sexual condition is an absurdity. Even though, taking a good look at it, the issue is a paradox: Leonardo Da Vinci himself, Renaissance genius, was stigmatized for his sexual condition. Isn't it ironic?

And in "An Infamy" columnist Jorge Raad Aljure says:

It's not a sin, and even less illegal, to be a homosexual. Those who see and judge others without the least intention to accept differences also have their right, but [it does not give them the right] to turn into aggressors as the makers of all truth and purity.

The corruption of minors is infamous as well as to ridicule human differences. By doing so you stain a humans' value.

In the meantime a protest has been organized in Bogota this Friday at noon in Bogota through Facebook (with other cities throughout the country showing interest in doing similar events).

My friend Marcela Sánchez Buitrago, Director of the Colombian LGBT rights organization Colombia Diversa, has been in touch with the students and their parents and here is what she says:

On Saturday morning they were feeling awful and they felt on their own in this fight but according to their lawyer our calls cheered them up. They are very grateful for all the demonstrations and the support that they have received.

They and their parents do not have an issue of [them] being lesbians and, more than that, with [then] having a loving relationship... and they are ready to receive all the help they can.

As for their first day in class, El Tiempo reports that even though the two students feared the worst, a dozen students welcomed them to school by embracing them. There were no new demonstrations and, while there was a greater awareness as to their presence, there weren't any outright hostile demonstrations against them. At least for today.

In the meantime, if you thought anti-gay fervor was the domain of certain high-school principals in Colombia please head over to this post on PageOneQ on a similar case here in the United States ("Principal ousts gays, ACLU steps in").

Related:

• Lack of tolerance and institutionalized discrimination plagues some Latin American countries (Impunity Watch South America, April 29, 2008)
• Lesbians taunted gladiator style in Colombian High School (Guanabee, April 29, 2008)
• School principal no pal to two lesbian students (Vivir Latino, April 28, 2008)
• Exodus, Antigay bullies prove need for more Days of Silence around the world (Truth Wins Out, April 28, 2008)