According to Juan Fernando Cristo the Interior Minister of Colombia (pictured above), the Colombian government is all in to support LGBT-rights activists’ fight for marriage equality.
"The government supports the fight for equality and we will adopt measures providing equal marriage rights for all," Cristo said at the Andes University in Bogota on Thursday.
Country-wide polling shows that the majority of Colombians are still staunchly opposed to gay marriage, despite the country’s large queer population. The government, Cristo insisted, is committed to backing campaigns working towards furthering marriage equality.
The road to marriage equality in Colombia has been an interesting one in recent years. In 2011 the Colombian Constitutional Court issued a ruling requiring the country’s Congress to legalize full same sex marriage or an equivalent by 2013. After the Congressional body failed to comply by the deadline, courts were empowered to begin marrying same sex couples at their own discretion. Only 30 couples managed to secure marriage licenses through the loophole.
