Spanish
Bogotá, June 29 (EFE) - Thousands of people filled the streets of Bogotá with the colors of the rainbow to commemorate International LGBT Pride Day this Sunday, a day in which they celebrated diversity and free love, called for equality, and denounced the resurgence of violence against this community in Colombia.
Amidst batucadas, banners, some costumes, and trucks with dance platforms, families, collectives, and groups of friends —many of them young— gathered from the morning in the National Park of the Colombian capital and paraded along the 13th and Seventh avenues, adding more participants as they advanced towards the Plaza Bolívar, in the center of the city.
Leading the march was a float with the face and name of Sara Miley, a 32-year-old transgender woman who was tortured and thrown into a ravine in the northwest of the country last April, in a crime that was recorded and spread on social media, and that generated national outrage. "This march is not just for her, it's for all trans women and women who have been murdered in the country and in other parts of the world," Casandra Rodríguez, a trans woman from the Red Somos collective, told EFE. Wearing a sequined dress and a 'cowboy' style hat, Rodríguez stated that Sunday's march seeks to make the LGTBI community in Colombia "more visible" so that there are no people who "continue hiding in closets" and to "show the world that we are, we will be, and we exist." Around them, half a dozen people held signs with the faces and names of other victims of homophobia and violence against this community in Colombia, where same-sex marriage has been legal since 2016, but where two murders are committed against LGBTI people every week.Defense of Rights
In the XXIX LGBTI March in Bogotá, which this year was celebrated under the slogan 'For full citizenship', the atmosphere was festive, with rivers of people dancing, escorted by street vendors offering flags, umbrellas and rainbow balloons, as well as traditional street food such as hot dogs, corn and arepas.Among the crowd, Paula Ortiz, 26 years old, explained to EFE that this day is "a day of struggle, of pride, of breaking schemes" and of affirming that LGBTI people also have "rights to have a family, a voice and take to the streets with love, culture and color".
"Despite being in the 21st century, the world is still very oppressive," added the young woman, who was accompanied by a friend of hers. In the first five months of 2025, at least 43 LGBT people were murdered in Colombia. And in 2024, 164 homicides against this community were recorded, which represented an increase of 3.8% compared to 2023, according to data collected by the organization Caribe Afirmativo. Trans women were the collective most affected by homicidal violence, representing almost two out of every ten cases, while sexual assaults against the LGBTI community totaled 690 — almost two per day —, with lesbian and bisexual women being the victims of half of these attacks.
