It would seem that the story of a young man having part of his arm removed just for being gay is fiction, a story from another era or from a country like Russia, Egypt or the Cayman Islands, where LGBT people are still criminalised. But no. The story is real and it happened in Colombia. Its protagonist is Luis Álvarez, te is 17 years old and lives in Sincelejo, Sucre.

The advanced legal recognition of rights of LGBT people in our country has led many people to think that acts of violence against this population have disappeared, that the barriers to accessing justice no longer exist or that, at last, the State has genuine political will to prevent violence and create public policies to combat discrimination against LGBT people, but These situations are far from being a reality.

Many human rights violations against people with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities continue to occur, but the state has not taken action to comprehensively prevent these abuses. One of the most neglected issues is violence against LGBT children and young people, an issue that is often minimised and sometimes socially normalised under the excuse that it is "child's play".

The case of Luis Álvarez raises a question: what are the failures we are committing as a society, the failures of the State and the role of educational institutions and families to stop the abuse and exclusion of LGBT children and young people? Let's look at a first reflection from the local level.

Being a "marica" in Bogotá is not the same as being a "marica" in Sincelejo (Sucre).

Last year was the first LGBT march in Sincelejo, Sucre. The excitement of seeing how people celebrated their identities without any hindrance led people to believe that sexual and gender diversity was here to stay in the capital of Sucre. However, this was not the case. Acts of discrimination continued to occur and one of the most obvious was that of Luis, on 30 July. The motives behind homophobic and transphobic attacks The customs, thoughts, idiosyncrasies and social codes in Sucre are rooted in more traditional and conservative perceptions that do not welcome diversity.

Machismo and deeply rooted social roles mean that anyone who steps out of the traditional role of "man" or "woman" is a victim of harassment, aggression, social exclusion or even violence as extreme as that suffered by Luis. Sucre Diversa, an organisation that fights for the rights of LGBT people in the department, has reported cases of young LGBT people who have been threatened by their teachers because of their leadership or because the education system does not respect their rights. However, such allegations are not limited to the school environment; violence within the home is also a constant.

Lack of training for education coordinators.The lack of access to information, among others, facilitates the increase of violence committed against LGBT children and young people.

"Violence against LGBT children and adolescents in Sucre happens due to the lack of interest and guarantees for addressing issues of sexual and gender diversity in the classroom, with parents, in the neighbourhood; in general, in all those environments in which this population usually socialises", assures Juan Carlos Salas, director of the Sucre Diversa Foundation. In the same way, Salas assures that as long as people are not allowed to talk about diversity issues, they will never reach those spaces where people tend to judge them.

For example, according to Salas, the Municipal Secretary of Education of Sincelejo has shown willingness to promote dialogue on sexuality and gender, but given the refusal of educational institutions to discuss these issues, it has not been possible to implement pedagogical programmes that address the problem. In fact, Juan Carlos Salas assures that many of the educational institutions in the capital of Sucre have not modified their coexistence manuals, in spite of the ruling issued by the Constitutional Court after the suicide of Sergio Urrego (T-478 of 2015) which calls for the revision of coexistence manuals and the implementation of the law on school coexistence.  (law 1620 of 2013).

The failure to update the coexistence manuals is not the only challenge to talking about diversity in the classroom. Lack of training for education coordinators.The lack of psychologists to provide guidance on the issue (it is estimated that there are 15 mental health professionals for around 3,000 students in Sincelejo), and the prejudice that persists on the part of principals, are an equation that facilitates the increase in violence committed against LGBT children and young people.

As a result of this neglect, they have received a number of complaints in Sucre Diversa. However, fear of reprisals, punishment, instigation in schools and even expulsion from their homes mean that many cases of homophobia and transphobia are not brought to the attention of departmental bodies.

Violence that doesn't seem to exist

Moving from the local to the national level, it is vital to note that liolence committed against LGBT people in our country often does not progress and perpetrators are not identified and punished. The lack of categorisation of victims, the confusion of identities, as well as the lack of interest of some State mechanisms to investigate and punish bias-based violence put people with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities at risk, especially minors.

In the 15 years that Colombia Diversa has been investigating serious human rights violations against LGBT people in Colombia, few investigations and studies have been issued on attacks against the integrity of LGBT children and young people. And it is not because they do not exist. In fact, in our latest human rights report we learned that at least 11 minors from this population were murdered during 2014 and 2018, with trans youth and gay adolescents being the main victims.

Although murder is the most commonly known type of violence, this does not mean that domestic, school or sexual violence does not exist. In fact, according to Gustavo Pérez, coordinator of the area of human rights of Colombia Diversa, it is estimated that around 23% of lesbian, bisexual and trans women who were victims of sexual violence in Colombia between 2015-2018 were minors between the ages of 10 and 17.

Around 23% for lesbian, bisexual and transgender women who were victims of sexual violence in Colombia between 2015-2018 were minors.

Likewise, domestic violence against LGBT youth is also a reality. The legal department of our organisation has received adolescent cases who are deprived of communication with other people or their partners, locked in their homes or expelled from their homes when they learn of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

If it exists, why isn't it being talked about?

One of the reasons behind the lack of research or knowledge about violence against LGBT minors is due to the constant denial of its existence. Every time we try to talk about this reality, debates arise that confuse parents under the argument that they want to "homosexualise" children and adolescents or intercede in their upbringing.

The second reason is the prejudice that still exists among parents, who often do not know how to deal with their children's diverse sexual orientation and gender identity. A study conducted by the George Washington University says that African American and Latino parents have a greater problem accepting their LGBT children when they come out of the wardrobe. The customs and traditions of each region are the most important factors in this difficulty.

The third reason is the lack of public policies and programmes against violence that take into account age and sexual orientation and gender identity as factors of vulnerability. Unfortunately this policy formulation is only done from an adult perspective.

A legal breakthrough that fails to materialise

Colombia is one of the countries that has one of the largest more advanced jurisprudence in terms of sexual and gender diversity. Some 20 Colombian Constitutional Court rulings promote discrimination-free classrooms for LGBT children and youth.

"The High Court's rulings reiterate that LGBT children and adolescents have the cognitive capacity and fundamental rights to freely explore their gender identity and sexual orientation," she says. Juan Felipe Rivera, litigation coordinator of Colombia Diversa. He adds that the Court's rulings reiterate that the rights of minors are enforceable against adults, institutions, educational communities and the rest of society.

Even though the Colombian legal system is very advanced, this has little or low socialisation and there are few mechanisms in place for for ordinary people to know about them and to implement them. Often this materialisation can be hindered for a variety of reasons. For example, in 2014 Sergio Urrego, a young gay man from Bogotá, took his own life due to pressure from members of his school, who, upon learning of his sexual orientation, forced him to tell his parents and forced him to go to psychology.

Just two years after this horrific event and following a ruling by the Constitutional Court that sought the revision of school coexistence manuals to respect sexual and gender diversity in the classroom, fundamentalist and anti-LGBT rights movements misrepresented the measure and called for massive marches on the grounds that "they wanted to homosexualise Colombia's children". These mobilisations sent, among other things, messages against LGBT children and adolescents. "I'd rather have a dead son than a faggot". was one of the posters that went viral during one of these marches.

The solution?

Taking into account the reality of each region in Colombia, the low visibility of violence against LGBT minors and the lack of implementation of the jurisprudential norms that seek educational environments free of discrimination, it is important to reflect on whether there is a response from different sides. 

For Sucre Diversa ledagogy and the joint efforts between educational institutions and families are key to stopping discriminatory and violent acts against LGBT children and young people. "It is useless to talk about diversity in schools when mockery and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity still persist at home," says Juan Salas. For this Sincelejan, the starting point for violence against LGBT people is in their childhood, at home, in the street, in the neighbourhood, and all because this aggression has been normalised.

Salas also points out that it is important to talk about diversity in broadcasting spaces. such as radio stations, regional channels, among others, as these media are places where stereotypes and prejudices that fuel violence against LGBT youth are perpetuated. She adds that the extension of these efforts in different spaces must not be a matter of two or six months, there must be constant monitoring in order to eradicate the idea that sexual and gender diversity is a temporary issue or an object of mockery and aggression.

In his booklet "Responses of the education sector to homophobic bullying".UNESCO ispoints out that it is important to have a register of bullying incidents, awareness raising and training on bullying, the adoption by schools of clear positions against homophobia and transphobia, confidential reporting mechanisms, training in tolerance and respect for students, as well as coordination with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Civil Society that are experts in sexual and gender diversity. It also points out that these measures must be complemented by state support that demonstrates interest in saving the lives of LGBT children and young people.