Well, this is one way to get your rights!
Dozens of same-sex couples in Colombia participated in a “kiss-a-thon” on Wednesday to support LGBTQ rights.
According to Euronews, the event happened in the capital city of Bogota at the Andino shopping center where a gay couple had been previously harassed.
The couple says a man pushed them, screamed profanities at them, and accused them of fondling each other in front of children. The two men say they were only hugging and holding hands. When the situation escalated over two days, the couple called the police for protection. Unfortunately, they were then fined for indecent exposure.
“We want people to stop satanizing and discriminating against the LGBT community. We are not sick, we are not an aberration, we are citizens who are here to build a better country,” said one of the men named Esteban Miranda.
In order to protest this unfair treatment, dozens of activists showed up to the mall with rainbow flags, according to the Associated Press. The protest then turned into a “kiss-a-thon” as one protest organizer urged attendees to express their freedom to love.
“Kissing someone is no crime,” said 21-year-old Paola Gutierrez, who was in attendance at the event. Gutierrez, who wore a pair of rainbow-colored suspenders, remembers kissing her girlfriend on the lips and feeling support from the crowd.
Colombia is one of the most LGBTQ-inclusive countries in South America, but persecution and homophobia still exist in the country (along with many accepting countries). A report released last year found that the overall murder rate of Colombia dropped, but the number of LGBTQ people murdered was not so lucky.
Sources: Euronews, the Associated Press
