Highlights
Our campaigns are proof that love wins. Here are some of our greatest victories (so far!).
No more so-called "Conversion Therapies" in Colombia!
These practices, commonly known as "conversion therapies" are practices that seek the impossible: to "change" or "correct" a person from being LGBT+.
But the truth is that they do not correct anything. On the contrary, they have serious physical and psychological consequences for the people who must endure them. Several organizations such as the United Nations have even stated that ECOSIEGs are tantamount to a form of torture, and should be banned worldwide.
However, very little was known about the issue in Colombia. Therefore, All Out teamed up with Revista Volcánicas to create the article Inconvertibles: The fight against the misnamed "conversion therapies", a torture for LGTBIQ+ people that highlighted how these practices happen in Colombia.
Because the article became so popular in the country, a Congressman called Mauricio Toro presented the Inconvertibles bill to ban so-called "conversion therapies" in Colombia.
However, at the first debate of the bill, an unprecedented act of homophobia took place in the Colombian Congress.
The debate was scheduled for June 7, 2022. But it could not take place.
A citizen formally requested that Mauricio Toro, the congressman who authored the bill, not participate in the debate. According to the citizen, there would be a conflict of interest and the congressman would be defending his personal interests by protecting LGBT+ people since he is LGBT+ as well. In other words, Mauricio Toro was prevented from debating his own bill for being gay.
And more congressmen attacked Mauricio Toro – and the bill – with terrible homophobic comments and tried to justify torturing LGBT+ people to "cure" them.
We hit a bit of a slump, but we're moving forward with this work: Congressman Mauricio Toro, was not reelected in the latest Colombian elections, in May 2022.
However, not all is lost! A new Congress started its term in August 2022 and they created the first-ever LGBT committee in Congress, with LGBT+ and allied congresspeople! One of their goals is to fight for the Inconvertibles bill to ban "conversion therapies" in Colombia!
If this bill is approved:
🚫 It will be prohibited to practice "Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Change Efforts"
⚖️ These practices will be recognized as a form of torture and sanctioned as such;
🏳️🌈 And, health professionals will be required to receive training on LGBT+ issues.
In late November 2022, the Inconvertibles bill was presented again and it's awaiting its first debate!