How Colombia's Fight for LGBT Equality Differs From Ours

Last summer, The Advocate hosted Marco Jaramillo, a Colombian journalist who launched one of the country’s most prominent LGBT multimedia outlets, EgoCity. Jaramillo was the first out journalist to take part in the International Center for Journalism’s multipart fellowship titled A Digital Path to Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Latin America, which brought experienced journalists from five different  Latin American countries to the U.S. to work in 10 different newsrooms. After welcoming Jaramillo into its newsroom in May 2015, The Advocate was able to send its managing editor, Sunnivie Brydum, to Colombia for a two-week intensive exchange in newsrooms in Bogotá and Medellín last August.

As the first LGBT media outlet involved in the program — which is funded by the U.S. State Department — The Advocate sought to highlight the distinctions between the ongoing struggle for LGBT equality in the U.S. and in Colombia, a close political ally of the United States, which is still navigating a tenuous peace and reconciliation process after narco-fueled paramilitary violence plagued the country for decades. 

Read on to hear from leading progressive journalists and activists in Colombia about how our struggles are distinct yet intertwined. Each person pictured was asked the same question: How does the fight for LGBT equality in Colombia differ from that in the U.S.? 

Para leer en Español, haga clic aquí.

Laura Villela contributed to this report. Original interviews conducted in Spanish have been translated manually here.