LGBT in Colombia - LGBT History

LGBT History

• 1513: Spanish conquistador Vasco Nuñez de Balboa killed a group of native Americans with his dogs near the Darien Gap, who were said to be homosexuals.
• 1514: One of the first books written about the Americas, Historia General y Natural de las Indias reports that homosexuality was fairly common in the territory of what is today Colombia
• 1610: The opening of the Spanish inquisition tribunal in Cartagena. The tribunal has autonomy to apply the death penalty in cases of sodomy.
• 19th and early 20th centuries: Treatments supposed to cure homosexuality were applied, such as electroshock, hormones and monkey testicle xenotransplantation.
• 1970s: In Medellín, a group of gay men led by León Zuleta started the first Colombian gay association (Zuleta was killed due to related causes in 1993)
• 1974: The American Psychiatric Association removed the homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, (DSM), its list of mental diseases. The national government, however did not adopt this standard and still classified homosexuality as a mental illness in the national disease codification CIE for several more years.
• 1976: The MLHC (Movimiento de Liberación Homosexual de Colombia- Colombia's Homosexual Liberation Movement), is founded in Bogotá by Manuel Velandia Mora, based on León Zuleta's idea, who had edited the first issue of "El Otro" magazine, in Medellín.
• 1981: Homosexuality is declared legal by the Colombian government. (Prior to this year, homosexuality was considered a crime and punished with 5 to 15 years jail time)
• 1982: The first gay pride parade was celebrated in Bogotá, with about 32 people marching. A contingent of nearly a hundred policemen were sent for crowd control.
• 1983: The first official reports of AIDS-related deaths in Colombia. The GAI Help and Information on AIDS Group (GAI Grupo de ayuda e Informacion sobre SIDA) is founded by Manuel Velandia and Eduardo Moreno.
• 1986-1989: Groups of illegal anti-gay social cleansing were formed around the country to take actions against the LGBT community. The media reported a rising bigotry and about 640 related murders during this period. Some groups that attributed themselves the crimes were "Manonegra" (black hand), "Amor a Medellín" (love to Medellín), "Amor a Manizales" (love to Manizales) and "muerte a HOMOSEXUALES" (death to homosexuals).
• 1990: Manuel Velandia promoted the recognition of equal rights for HIV/AIDS-infected people.
• 1991-1994: Reports of the media about several episodes of gay bashing against people leaving places suspected of being gay nightclubs in Bogotá, who were stripped, soaked with cold water and left in the top of Monserrate hill.
• 1994: The first support groups for HIV/AIDS were created.
• 1996: The first organized lesbian groups were created.
• 1995: Psychologist Marina Talero created the first support groups for transgender people.
• During the early 2000s, the Colombian lawyer and LGBT Activist German Perfetti won legal actions for the achievement of important issues such as: social security for same-sex couples, the right to work for gay teachers, protection against unjustified job loss for LGBT–related causes, and the right to legal name change for transgender people.
• 2000: The first National LGBT Convention was celebrated in Bogotá.
• 2001: Creation of Planeta Paz (the Planet Peace Project) for bisexual visibility.
• 2002: May 1. A hand grenade was thrown against Manuel Velandia´s house, in the West Chapinero neighborhood of Bogota. Velandia was at the time running campaign for Chamber of Representatives of Colombia in representation of the Liberal Party and the sexual minorities.
• 2007: January 17. Manuel Velandia left the country and headed to San Sebastián, Spain, asking for Right to asylum with the aid of the Spanish Red Cross, The Spanish Commission of help for refugees (CEAR) and the GEHITU (LGBT association of the Basque Country). His case was finally presented to the provincial commissary of police on February, 2007.
• 7 February 2007: Colombian Constitutional Court recognizes proprietary equity (inheritance) rights for same-sex couples having lived together for more than 2 years and registered as a union in a public notary, thanks to the efforts of the public interest law group of Universidad de los Andes.
• March 2007: The president of the Catholic Bishop council, Pedro Rubiano, together with other ecclesiastic authorities, made press statements against the recognition of same-sex couples by the national government.
• June 2007: The Colombian Congress, in the final stage of recognition of same-sex couples, decided to discard the project
• 5 October 2007: The Colombian Constitutional Court rules that same-sex couples registered as a couple in a public notary must be granted the same social security (health care) benefits as those given to heterosexual couples.
• 12 November 2007: The LGBT community center of Chapinero was closed for a month due to bureaucratic issues and lack of funds
• December 2007: Several transvestites murdered in Bogota's Santafé neighborhood. Reports of at least one million pesos (about 500 dollars) being paid in exchange for each murder.
• 17 April 2008: The Colombian Constitutional Court rules that same-sex couples registered as a couple in a public notary must be granted the same pension benefits as those given to heterosexual couples. This ruling, together with the ruling of 7 February 2007 on property rights (inheritance) and the ruling of 5 October 2007 on social security means Colombian same-sex couples have the same rights as heterosexual couples.
• 27 January 2009: the Colombian Constitutional Court makes a general revision of the National Constitution in order to provide equality between same-sex civil unions and heterosexual ones. Also, in order to correct every single article where homosexual people and couple would be under discrimination.
• 8 April 2010: The office of asylum and refugees, of the General Direction of Interior Politics of the Spanish Ministry of Interior recognized Manuel Antonio Velandia Mora with the condition of refugee and the right of asylum.