IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 7 ENGLISH | Page 85

Homoparental Families and
their Acknowledgment in
Colombia
Mitchel J. Ovalle R.
Attorney and political scientist
Ibagué, Colombia
n the world’s memory, the decade of
the 1970s stands out as the moment
in which homosexuality began to
gain ground as a right in the midst of a
imminently conservative environment.
In it, the State very dogmatically defined
the concept of ‘family.’ As with many
relevant, historical events, the voice of
homosexuals, as a community, began to
be heard on June 29th, 1969, with the
uprising that took place after the brutal
police raid against homosexuals present
at the Stonewall Inn, a New York bar.
This is considered the first time in history in which the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, Transsexual and Queer) community raised its voice for its rights, thus
becoming a truly landmark, founding
moment for homosexual liberation.
Since then, a large number of LGBTQ
groups are working incessantly to
achieve a peaceful sociocultural revolution that will allow them to achieve real
recognition for their rights. Part of their
agenda is the right to marriage and adoption, discrimination in the workplace,
not being allowed to give blood, and

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homosexuality stop being legal in 78
countries, among which seven apply the
death penalty. Despite the fact the social
taboo concerning homosexuality is insurmountable in some places, the passage of time has brought with ever more
progressive conversations about it. The
participation of younger generations and
legal and judicial attitudes that have
come out of the closet have promoted
the consecration of normative structures
that are much more egalitarian and
promising in terms of guarantees. Of
course, modernizing the norms is essential so long as they are respected and
come with a real modification of traditional values and habits. Just as it sounds
impossible now that just a few decades
ago people could not choose who to
marry, whites could not ride on the same
bus and blacks, and Jews were assassinated because of their religion, the discriminatory treatment still given to minorities will surely sound equally unthinkable. Somehow, this debate is finally sinking in the twenty-first century.
History will probably legitimate it as the

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