Good morning. It is a great honour for me to receive this recognition. On behalf of Colombia Diversas, its board of directors, its work team and all the students, volunteers, donors and all the people who have joined this common cause of making Colombia a more inclusive and diverse Colombia. Thanks to the Senate of the Republic for this recognition, today it is possible what was unthinkable 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
Since 1998, in this same chamber, Senator Margarita Londo\u00f1o and Piedad C\u00f3rdoba, of the Liberal Party, worked in this Congress to recognise the rights of same-sex couples, but they did not succeed. For more than 20 years we worked to pass bills on de facto marital union and marriage, and we did not succeed, despite outstanding allies in all parties. Because we can say that, in all parties, in the broad political spectrum, we had allies. I remember the visit of President L\u00f3pez Michelsen, when he said that the bill should recognise patrimonial and not matrimonial rights. I also remember the support of senators and congressmen from the Conservative Party; for example, to mention a few, such as Juan Mario Laserna, Telesforo Pedraza or a senator from the Conservative Party who voted against the referendum against the adoption of same-sex couples, saying that he did not want only some families to have rights and others to be excluded from constitutional protection. We had great debates and heard the most diverse arguments, arguments against which were even defended as excremental.<\/p>\n
What was unthinkable 20 years ago is possible today. For example, this award; more than 150 Constitutional Court rulings that recognise the rights of LGBTQ+ people and their families; peace agreements that recognise the victimisation of LGBTIQ+ people by all armed actors; public officials and budgets specifically dedicated to ending and eliminating discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people; criminal aggravations against hate-motivated violence. And, most importantly, allies who have built a social network to sustain these advances.<\/p>\n
But today there are still unthinkables, and I will recount mine: I hope we reduce violent deaths, police violence and threat based on sexual orientation and gender identity to zero. I hope that trans people, including children and adolescents, have full rights. I hope that we can live without hiding, because where there is fear there is no freedom, and where there is no freedom there is no full democracy. I hope that we can share a common agenda with religious sectors and religious politicians, which, I believe, we already have: to fight for a world free of pain, to fight for a compassionate world without humiliation.<\/p>\n
I grew up in a country where there was pain, humiliation and violence towards evangelical Christians, motivated by lies, prejudice and manipulation. I hope that the bill that seeks to eliminate access to health care for trans children and adolescents is based on these values: not to continue generating pain, humiliation and lack of love, because we do not want Colombia to have first-class children and second-class children who are denied access to health care.<\/p>\n
These are the unthinkables of today, which I believe will be possible tomorrow. I am sure of it, because, despite the efforts of many to erase them, we will continue to make people with a \"broken wing\", as Pedro Lemebel would metaphorically say to refer to LGBTIQ+ people. And we will always be here: new wings will be born for us. Producing fear is a strategy of domination that generates weak, populist and tyrannical democracies.<\/p>\n
We are not afraid. We have hope. Thank you very much.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Good morning. It is a great honour for me to receive this recognition. On behalf of Colombia Diversas, its board of directors, its work team and all the students, volunteers, donors and all the people who have joined this common cause of making Colombia a more inclusive and diverse Colombia. Thanks to the Senate [...]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,126,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-intervenciones","category-opinion","category-filtrar-por-categoria"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n