Anti-LBGT Violence in Colombia Escalating
Remember those social cleansing pamphlets? Well:
Hoping Investigation Over Diversity Radio Robbery Bears Fruit, LBGT Community Continues to Be Held Hostage
The robbery that occurred at Diversity Radio, an Internet radio station for the LBGT (lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender) community, last Wednesday was, it seems, calculated.
The technical equipment and two of the four computers found in the broadcasting office were left behind.
The thieves were after two specific computers: the ones that had detailed personal information about the station's contributors, as well as a database of people that help the station.
Furthermore, they cut the telephone cables and an Internet connection cable.
One of the station's directors, who wished to remain anonymous, was in the Fiscalía filing a report. He stated that he hopes that the authorities get to the bottom of this matter.
"We are working for a very vulnerable population, many of us contributors are very critical of the institutions," he said.
The Diversity Radio robbery is a new chapter of what is happening to the LBGT community of Bogotá, [the capital].
Last weekend, Jasson Fandiño Cortés, a youth who supports LBGT programs and political campaigns, disappeared. Monday he was found in a clinic in the city. He was beaten and said that his last memory was being [drugged and] put into a car.
Additionally, there are the anti-LBGT pamphlets that have appeared in locations such as Chapinero, Santa Fe and Mártires, with threats against the population.
"Many of them, even, naming names. They are thrown from underneath the streets of the houses where LBGT people live," added the director of Diversity Radio.
One of the pamphlets, that says that gays and transgendered people need to disappear, is signed by a group called The Organization.
And then there is the physical attacks.
Eric Cantor, author of the book The Faces of Homophobia in Bogotá, stated that the attacks against gay men occur, with rising frequency, on the street, "in normal Rumba dancing spaces and also the Rumba spaces of universities. Parks are no exception."
Regarding lesbians, they are attacked most often, physically and verbally, inside their own families. "Transgendered people, for their part, are the object of violence in Chapinero, Mártires and Santa Fe, where their job is developed," Cantor added. [Referring to prostitution - most places refuse to hire a trans person in Colombia, outside Chapinero, the "gay district" of Bogotá.]
Marcela Sánchez, director of the NGO Diversity Colombia, stated that the LBGT community is waiting for the authorities to say if Fandiño Cortés's case was isolated or motivated by homophobia.
"It's worrying that the anti-LBGT messages arrived from the higher-ups, as is the case of the Procuraduría [next step up from the Fiscalía]. Alejandro Ordóñez, the attorney, made a statement against same-sex partners raising a child together."
Because of this, said Sánchez, what is happening in the streets against LBGT people is just another reflection of the reigning homophobia.
"The murders of people in the community are committed with a large dose of violence, following common attack patterns and leaving a certain type of message," he warns. [One of those "common attack patterns" is cutting off a gay man's penis so that he bleeds to death.]
One of the most recent cases that worries this community occurred last March, in Cali, when the LBGT leader Álvaro Rivera, one of the most respected scholars in the west of the country, was beaten to death.
The authorities stated that they are investigating the case of the pamphlets and hope to have answers soon.
The LBGT community will continue fighting for their rights. "A wide path has been opened, this isn't the time to close it," said another leader of this community.
Source, translation mine.
My girlfriend's name, address and phone number are in that stolen database :/ We're both scared, and she's looking to move right quick.
Hoping Investigation Over Diversity Radio Robbery Bears Fruit, LBGT Community Continues to Be Held Hostage
The robbery that occurred at Diversity Radio, an Internet radio station for the LBGT (lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender) community, last Wednesday was, it seems, calculated.
The technical equipment and two of the four computers found in the broadcasting office were left behind.
The thieves were after two specific computers: the ones that had detailed personal information about the station's contributors, as well as a database of people that help the station.
Furthermore, they cut the telephone cables and an Internet connection cable.
One of the station's directors, who wished to remain anonymous, was in the Fiscalía filing a report. He stated that he hopes that the authorities get to the bottom of this matter.
"We are working for a very vulnerable population, many of us contributors are very critical of the institutions," he said.
The Diversity Radio robbery is a new chapter of what is happening to the LBGT community of Bogotá, [the capital].
Last weekend, Jasson Fandiño Cortés, a youth who supports LBGT programs and political campaigns, disappeared. Monday he was found in a clinic in the city. He was beaten and said that his last memory was being [drugged and] put into a car.
Additionally, there are the anti-LBGT pamphlets that have appeared in locations such as Chapinero, Santa Fe and Mártires, with threats against the population.
"Many of them, even, naming names. They are thrown from underneath the streets of the houses where LBGT people live," added the director of Diversity Radio.
One of the pamphlets, that says that gays and transgendered people need to disappear, is signed by a group called The Organization.
And then there is the physical attacks.
Eric Cantor, author of the book The Faces of Homophobia in Bogotá, stated that the attacks against gay men occur, with rising frequency, on the street, "in normal Rumba dancing spaces and also the Rumba spaces of universities. Parks are no exception."
Regarding lesbians, they are attacked most often, physically and verbally, inside their own families. "Transgendered people, for their part, are the object of violence in Chapinero, Mártires and Santa Fe, where their job is developed," Cantor added. [Referring to prostitution - most places refuse to hire a trans person in Colombia, outside Chapinero, the "gay district" of Bogotá.]
Marcela Sánchez, director of the NGO Diversity Colombia, stated that the LBGT community is waiting for the authorities to say if Fandiño Cortés's case was isolated or motivated by homophobia.
"It's worrying that the anti-LBGT messages arrived from the higher-ups, as is the case of the Procuraduría [next step up from the Fiscalía]. Alejandro Ordóñez, the attorney, made a statement against same-sex partners raising a child together."
Because of this, said Sánchez, what is happening in the streets against LBGT people is just another reflection of the reigning homophobia.
"The murders of people in the community are committed with a large dose of violence, following common attack patterns and leaving a certain type of message," he warns. [One of those "common attack patterns" is cutting off a gay man's penis so that he bleeds to death.]
One of the most recent cases that worries this community occurred last March, in Cali, when the LBGT leader Álvaro Rivera, one of the most respected scholars in the west of the country, was beaten to death.
The authorities stated that they are investigating the case of the pamphlets and hope to have answers soon.
The LBGT community will continue fighting for their rights. "A wide path has been opened, this isn't the time to close it," said another leader of this community.
Source, translation mine.
My girlfriend's name, address and phone number are in that stolen database :/ We're both scared, and she's looking to move right quick.