From 9 Perspectives on Colombia's LGBT Marches

Annual LGBT pride marches in the main cities of the world are nearing. Sentiido presents nine perspectives on those that are taking place in Colombia. Read what María Mercedes Gómez, IGLHRC's Regional Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean, has to say.

On Sunday, June 30th a great number of LGBT marches that occur annually will take place in Colombia’s main cities, as they do in other countries.

This year we’ll see Bogotá’s 17th March for Full LGBT Citizenship; Medellín’s 6th March for Life, Sexual Diversity and Gender; Barranquilla’s 3rd LGBTI March; Pereira’s March for Diversity; Cali’s Pride 2013; and Manizales’ 4th Carnival for Diversity, among others.

The marches are held in the main cities of the world on the occasion of the International Day of LGBT Pride (initially only Gay Pride). Objectives include celebrating sexual orientations and diverse gender identities, as well as reclaiming equal rights and saying “no” to discrimination.

These events usually take place at the end of June in commemoration of the Stonewall riots that happened on June 28, 1969 in New York – a response to maltreatment and police abuse experienced by men as they left the Stonewall Inn bar.

The first gay march in Colombia took place in Bogotá on June 28, 1982, where 32 people attended. Now, this city’s gathering is known as the March for Full LGBT Citizenship and around 40,000 people participate.

Each year this event generates newfound voices. On one hand there are people who view the march as reinforcing stereotypes of LGBT people. They also oppose nudity, and consumption of alcoholic beverages and psychedelic substances. One the other hand, there are those who assert that this march is the most important political event of the year, providing visibility to LGBT people and celebrating diversity.

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María Mercedes Gómez, IGLHRC's Regional Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean

What is your opinion of the LGBT marches that take place annually?

These marches have a political origin as well as one of resistance —they are a space for visibility for LGBT people. Symbolically, they have the importance of demonstrating one day each year that a community does in fact exist. I have participated in five marches in Bogotá, and have perceived that the observers are also linked in a way that is very moving and supportive.

In these spaces of civic creativity, what is political is not only making visible the discrimination and exclusion suffered by the community but also, the celebrations. Here, we are acknowledged not because we are being abused or killed, or having our rights taken away, but because we are dancing and expressing what we feel in the streets.

The celebrations help to transform culture as much as law. Perhaps these are not radical actions, but they help to expand spaces for inclusion: giving voice to as many people as possible.

There are people who critique the most economically powerful groups who use this event to their advantage to stand out. That does not worry me. If people organize, each person will have their own space to be visible. I don’t believe that you can say there is only one way to experience the march.

Some people also say that the marches have been converted into capitalist spaces, with commercials and bars. I resist the thought that because marches are celebratory their political aspect is undermined. While these commercial spaces do exist, Pride’s character is not only to be a protest or march but also a celebration.

I have never participated in a march where what I was doing, whether dancing or hitting a drum, didn’t seem political. I don’t know a single person that has been in one and has not felt that something important happened there.

The march can be a place of resistance, but above all it is a celebration: people taking public space that is normally denied to them.

What should be changed, added or removed from these events?

In Canada the march opens with the police and they give rainbow flags to the spectators. In the marches that I have been to in Bogotá, it was difficult to watch the riot police (ESMAD) standing on the sidewalks. I dream of a country where the police march. I would like to be in Bogotá this year because I think that the mayor, Gustavo Petro, has given visibility and backing to the LGBT community in a way that no other has done.

What do you think of the nudity, and the consumption of alcoholic beverages and psychedelic substances during these marches?

I don’t believe it is something specific to the marches in Colombia or gay marches. In public events, like concerts, there are people who consume drugs and alcoholic beverages. I am not against these behaviors but I am not going to promote them in these marches. The legality or illegality of a situation is not decided by me, but by the laws.

It seems that the people who question these attitudes have a desire to control the event, and it gives them anxiety that they cannot change certain attitudes. But one cannot intervene in how people express themselves. Each person will see what they want to. The march is what it is.

The only recommendation I have is that the people need to be civic, meaning not engaging in violent behavior. The march needs to be a space for respectful civil expression, I would not say more beyond that. For me it is a celebration, but that does not mean it is not political. It is a march of pride, a space to gain visibility and take to the streets.

How have you seen the transformation of the marches in Colombia?

They always seem to me, multi-dimensional and well organized.

* María’s opinion is personal and does not represent, necessarily, that of any institution.