Claudia López: Colombia, Lgbtq+ Rights, And Political Future

López, 55, was a trainee protest movement leader, journalist, and political researcher before she got in politics. López went back to Colombia in 2013 after she made her PhD in government at Columbia University.

Early Career and Education

López said celebrations, candidates, and their political unions in Colombia and all over the world demand to “pay attention, reconnect, and arrange with people” at the grassroots. López also told the Blade there is a “worldwide dilemma of freedom.”

López took workplace on Jan. 1, 2020, less than a month after she wed her other half, Colombian Sen. Angélica Lozano. (López was not out when she was chosen to the Senate.) Lozano was with López at the Victory Institute conference.

“I recognize exactly how obscure and tough and difficult and painful autonomous times are, however we can not (back) freedom only when we win,” she included. “It’s specifically when things are testing, when we suffer defeats that hurt, that we require to affix to our humanistic and democratic concepts and values.”

Challenges to Freedom

“It is not concerning making anything undetectable, or perhaps minimizing anything, but rather concerning being far more critical in comprehending that we do not want our flags and creates to be subjected in a manner that winds up being a boomerang for our very own community,” López added. “So, I claim that is why it is a dissatisfaction, because I think it is a lesson. At least for me, it made me believe and it makes me believe, and I have stated it openly ever since, that we need to be much more cautious and much more, most of all, calculated, in how we raise our flags to make sure that they actually do not just have symbolic, but actual advancements and so that in no instance do they become a boomerang versus ourselves.”

Former Bogotá Mayor Claudia López on Saturday did not especially talk about the growing conjecture over whether she will run for president of Colombia in 2026 when she talked at the LGBTQ+ Triumph Institute’s yearly International LGBTQ Leaders Seminar in D.C. and with the Washington Blade.

Former Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro, a previous senator who was when a member of the M-19 guerrilla movement that disbanded in the 1990s, succeeded Duque as head of state on Aug. 7, 2022. Colombia and Venezuela restored diplomatic ties much less than a month later.

“We teemed with hope, all set to visit offer a new social and environmental contract for Bogotá culture for the 21st century,” she said. “Yet a number of (months) after being sworn right into office, the pandemic of COVID-19 came.”

Bogotá Mayor and COVID-19

López throughout the interview commended the recent political elections of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Uruguayan Vice President Beatriz Argimón, and various other females in Latin America. She additionally shared compassion with LGBTQ Americans that are concerned regarding the inbound Trump-Vance management.

López in 2018 was her event’s prospect to succeed then-President Juan Manuel Santos when he left workplace. López in 2019 came to be the very first female and very first lesbian chosen mayor of Bogotá, the Colombian funding and the country’s largest city.

Recognition and Achievements

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council on July 28 proclaimed President Nicolás Maduro the victor of the nation’s questioned governmental political election. Tamara Adrián, the nation’s very first transgender congresswoman that ran in the governmental main previously this year, are among those who denounced ballot abnormalities.

López took office on Jan. 1, 2020, less than a month after she wed her spouse, Colombian Sen. Angélica Lozano. (López was not out when she was elected to the Us senate.) López’s mayorship ended on Dec. 31, 2023. She was a 2024 Harvard University Advance Leadership Campaign other.

López in her speech said Juan Francisco “Kiko” Gomez, a previous guv of La Guajíra Department in north Colombia, intimidated to execute her since she blogged about his connections to criminal gangs. A Bogotá judge in 2017 convicted Gómez of purchasing participants of a paramilitary group to kill previous Barrancas Mayor Yandra Brito, her other half, and bodyguard and sentenced him to 55 years behind bars.

“It is not regarding making anything invisible, or even downplaying anything, however rather regarding being much more calculated in understanding that we do not desire our flags and creates to be subjected in a method that ends up being a boomerang for our own community,” López included.” I recognize how you really feel,” said López in her speech.

“So, I go back to Colombia relaxed, thankful after a year of representation, with propositions in mind, but figured out to devote time to what I think about the most vital benefit freedom currently, which is to reconnect from the grassroots,” added López.

Grassroots Reconnection

“I understand how you really feel,” said López in her speech. I have actually been there when paramilitary teams were able to sustain and choose another head of state in Colombia.”

“The tranquility procedure with the FARC, which was to demobilize the FARC, duration, absolutely attempted to have and had a sex focus, naturally a diversity emphasis, a concentrate on civils rights for all targets, and certainly (the) many LGBT targets that had been targets of FARC recruitment, abuse, stigmatization, etc,” López told the Blade. “So, in some sense, or in lots of senses, having that sex and variety point of view was a way of acknowledging the sufferers of our area.”

Peace Process and Diversity

López in a speech she provided last December after the LGBTQ+ Triumph Institute recognized her at its yearly International LGBTQ Leaders Meeting in D.C. noted Juan Francisco “Kiko” Gomez, a former governor of La Guajíra, a division in northern Colombia, threatened to execute her due to the fact that she wrote about his connections to criminal gangs.

“In a week I am mosting likely to return to Colombia and I’m returning with a really, very punctual job,” she claimed in a speech she gave after the Victory Institute inducted her into its LGBTQ+ Political Hall of Fame at the JW Marriott. “Democracy worldwide generally requirements emotional reconnection.”

Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia Commander Rodrigo “Timochenko” Londoño on Sept 26, 2016, signed an LGBTQ-inclusive tranquility agreement. Colombian citizens a couple of days later narrowly rejected it a vote that happened versus the background of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric from spiritual and traditional teams.

“I was the only lady, the only LGBTQ participant of my caucus,” she said in her speech. “Of course I had the honor, however also the responsibility to represent them specifically well, [and] certainly all the citizens who trust me and all the citizens of Colombia.”

Presidential Ambitions

If she wins, López would certainly be Colombia’s very first female head of state. López would additionally become the 3rd openly lesbian woman elected head of government– Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was Iceland’s head of state from 2009-2013 and Ana Brnabić was Serbia’s prime minister from 2017-2024.

López took office on Jan. 1, 2020, less than a month after she wed her other half, Colombian Sen. Angélica Lozano. López took office on Jan. 1, 2020, much less than a month after she wed her spouse, Colombian Sen. Angélica Lozano. Lozano was with López at the Success Institute conference.

López proclaimed her candidacy 4 days before a gunman shot Sen. Miguel Uribe, a member of the resistance Democratic Facility party that is seen as a likely presidential prospect, in the head during a rally in Bogotá’s Fontibón area.

López in 2014 went back to Colombia, and ran for the nation’s Us senate as a participant of the center-left Environment-friendly Alliance party after she recovered from breast cancer. López won after a 10-week campaign that set you back $80,000.

López in 2014 went back to Colombia, and competed the country’s Us senate as a participant of the center-left Environment-friendly Alliance celebration after she recovered from breast cancer cells. López won after a 10-week campaign that cost $80,000.

López noted her management in feedback to the pandemic used scholarships to youngsters, supported companies, and raised funding of the city’s social services. López likewise claimed her management executed Latin America’s very first city-based treatment system for women treatment providers, and build 3 more LGBTQ community centers in working-class and bad communities.

When he left workplace, López in 2018 was her party’s candidate to succeed then-President Juan Manuel Santos. López in 2019 ended up being the initial female and very first lesbian elected mayor of Bogotá, the Colombian funding and the nation’s largest city.