Court rules in favor of lesbian couple discriminated against for showing affection in public

The Constitutional Court has ignited the alerts on LGBTI discrimination in the country by warning that there is a model of excluding people from this community when they express their affection in public and semi-public spaces. “These situations show the invisibility that LGBTI people suffer from in these places.”

This happened after the guardianship decision filed by a lesbian couple who denounced the discrimination of a security guard in a shopping center in Barranquilla, all for organizing public demonstrations, such as kissing or hugging. , inside the premises. Although the security company and the mall owners denied the facts on the grounds that there had been no report or complaint about what had happened, the Court’s First Review Chamber concluded that the fault had been committed.

In accordance with the above, on April 19, Noticias Caracol announced that the High Court had ruled in favor of women on the grounds that prohibiting kissing or caressing is an act of discrimination.

Judge Diana Fajardo Rivera, who analyzed the case, concluded that there had been discrimination, violating their rights, “knowing that they had been reproached and that they were prohibited from expressing their affection publicly, without any evidence that their behavior violated the standards that guarantee peaceful coexistence», Explained the court.

“These situations show the most essential form of discrimination: invisibility. In this way, it is expected that these people will go unnoticed by society and are forced to hide their feelings and limit them exclusively to the private sphere where they cannot be seen, sometimes camouflaging contempt and prejudice under the apparent concern for tranquility. of others. or the protection of children ”, affirmed the judgment in favor of the female couple.

“The guarantee of the rights of LGBTI people is based on their visibility by society, that they can identify with and feel recognized, accepted and respected in public spaces or open to the public under the same conditions as other people and don’t be afraid to expose yourself to exclusion or recrimination for showing your affection in a public way, ”the High Court said.

For their part, in statements made to El Espectador, the women who suffered the act of discrimination said that, as a result, they withdrew from the desire to be in public. “We had a trauma with the security guards”said the couple.

“We were friends, normal, a couple who love each other, who kiss and kiss”One of the women pointed out in the same newspaper, which in turn reported that after that the guard approached them: “He told us to stop what we were doing because there were children and otherwise we would have to withdraw. I started to cry and Juana (name used by the newspaper to protect her identity) went to talk to the guard ”.

His partner continued to recount the fact: “I told him that what he had done was not justifiable, first of all because there were not even children there. And second, because our displays of affection were not obscene. She told me that she did not interfere in anyone’s life, that she only followed orders from above“.

“Same-sex couples are not banned, they shouldn’t be, because there is no difference between heterosexual couples and same-sex couples in terms of expressing affection in public,” Marcela Sánchez said. , Managing Director, in Caracol Noticias de Colombia Diversa, an organization that maintains that Between 2018 and 2020, at least 764 violent LGBT people were registered in the country.

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