Preserving the Truth, Shaping the Future:

LGBTQ+ Voices in Colombia

La Poderosa, an Afro-Colombian gay man from the rural Colombian town of San Juan de Urabá, was celebrating his 18th birthday in 1999 when paramilitaries abducted him from a public gathering. He was violently assaulted and threatened with death unless he left his hometown. “It was such a terrible violation,” he recounted. “They sexually abused me. I thought, ‘This is where life ends.’ By four in the morning the next day, I had no choice but to flee.” His testimony to the country’s Truth Commission reveals the harrowing realities faced by LGBTQ+ communities during the country’s five-decades-long armed conflict.

Seventeen years after La Poderosa was so brutally attacked, the Colombian government signed a comprehensive peace accord with the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People’s Army (FARC-EP) guerrillas in November 2016. This agreement, remarkable for its ambition and scope, came after a contentious and complex process. Initially rejected in a public plebiscite, the accord faced backlash fueled by political polarization, misinformation and heated debates around a so-called “gender ideology.” Opponents falsely claimed that the accord’s gender provisions sought to dismantle the nuclear family, obscuring the reality of what these measures aimed to achieve: a global milestone in recognizing how violence during the conflict was shaped by gender and how women and LGBTQ+ populations actively resisted that violence.

Embedding Gender in Peacemaking

A powerful moment during a public listening session held by Colombia’s Truth Commission: an individual on stage draped in a rainbow flag symbolized the recognition of LGBTQ+ victims and survivors who endured sexual violence during the conflict. Available at https://web.comisiondelaverdad.co/actualidad/noticias/mujeres-trans-nosotras-resistimos-contamos-nuestras-historias

The inclusion of gender in the Colombian peace accord was unprecedented—not just for its attention to women’s and LGBTQ+ experiences during a conflict, but also for embedding these perspectives throughout its design and implementation. Of the accord’s 578 commitments, 130 specifically address gender equality, including provisions for women’s participation in peacebuilding, mechanisms to combat gender-based violence and measures to ensure representation in areas such as rural reform, political participation, victim reparations and illicit drug policy.

This groundbreaking inclusion was made possible through the creation of a Gender Subcommittee during negotiations—an innovative mechanism in which women negotiators from both the FARC-EP and the government developed joint commitments. While this subcommittee faced significant resistance, it gradually gained traction by inviting women’s civil society representatives and international gender and LGBTQ+ experts to educate the negotiating parties about the critical importance of these issues.

The convergence of Colombia’s women and LGBTQ+ social movements during the negotiation process allowed the gender approach to move beyond an essentialist view that conflates “gender” solely with “women.” Instead, it embraced a broader, more inclusive conceptualization, recognizing the diverse experiences of women, men and LGBTQ+ people of all genders, and addressing how societal norms and power dynamics shaped the violence and inequality during the conflict. This expansive understanding has set a global precedent for what gender-inclusive peacemaking can achieve.

Tracking Progress Toward Peace and Uncovering the Truth with a Gender Lens

“Así suena mi Resistencia: María Flor, la mujer resguardo”. Available at https://www.comisiondelaverdad.co/maria-flor-la-mujer-resguardo

Since 2016 and thanks to a mandate given by the signatory parties, the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM) project at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute has been monitoring the implementation of the entire Colombian peace accord in real time. I, Josefina, as the director of PAM, have had the privilege of working with a dedicated team of researchers and practitioner peacebuilders on the Barometer Initiative in Colombia, as well as a team on campus in the United States. This initiative, the first one of its kind in the world, is tasked with independently tracking the fulfillment of a peace agreement’s commitments in real-time. Our work has provided a vital accountability mechanism, helping ensure that the ambitious goals of the accord—including those related to gender—are translated into meaningful progress on the ground. After growing up in the midst of the war during the 1990s in Medellín, leading the PAM work is both an honor and the biggest responsibility I can imagine.

While the accord itself set a high bar for inclusivity, its implementation has brought additional innovations, particularly through the mandate of Colombia’s now-defunct Truth Commission. Established as part of the peace accord’s transitional justice framework, the Truth Commission was tasked with uncovering the root causes of the conflict, ensuring victims’ rights to truth, and contributing to guarantees of non-repetition. From its inception, the commission prioritized a comprehensive gender approach, creating a Gender Working Group to ensure that gender was transversally included in its entire methodology. This group and its technical table of civil society experts played a central role in shaping how the commission gathered, analyzed, and reported information, making sure that the experiences of women and LGBTQ+ individuals—who had often been silenced or ignored—were at the core of its work.

A public listening session held during the Commission’s investigations honored the dignity of women and LGBTQ+ individuals who endured sexual violence during the conflict. Available at https://www.comisiondelaverdad.co/encuentro-por-la-verdad-mi-cuerpo-dice-la-verdad

The Truth Commission’s 10-volume landmark report, There is Future if There is Truth, explores the many dimensions of Colombia’s armed conflict. One of its key volumes, My Body is the Truth, examines not only the gender-based violence faced by women and LGBTQ+ communities, but also the structural factors that perpetuated such violence and the resilience with which they resisted.

To ensure these findings endure, the commission entrusted the University of Notre Dame with hosting its Digital Platform, which preserves over 200,000 files, including testimonies, audiovisual material, and digitized documents. This collaboration guarantees continued access to the Truth Commission’s groundbreaking work, offering a unique resource for advancing transitional justice, human rights, and the centrality of victims. Following up on the commission’s Legacy Strategy, the Legacy Project at the University of Notre Dame is working to ensure that the Truth Commission’s Digital Platform serves as more than a historical record. Through public and private gatherings, the project brings together involved parties from Colombia and elsewhere who are contending with the legacies of war and conflict. Special teaching materials have also been designed and disseminated so that students can learn first-hand about the work of the commission and listen directly from victims, witnesses and offenders.

Professor Echavarría Álvarez teaching “Truth Commissions: Conceptual Foundations and Case Studies,” a course that integrates materials from the Colombian Truth Commission’s Digital Platform to explore the impact and legacy of truth-seeking in transitional justice.

Through internal and external research grants’ opportunities, the project supports researchers, educators, policymakers, artists and peacebuilders who are using these materials to deepen our understanding of the Colombian conflict and transitional justice more broadly. Whether drawing insights from the experiences of those who endured the war, analyzing the mechanisms of violence, or exploring strategies for global peacebuilding, this initiative connects Colombia’s lessons to broader efforts to address the root causes of violence and inequality worldwide. As we reflect on Colombia’s peace process, its achievements in gender inclusion stand as a global example of how justice can—and must—be reimagined to account for those most affected by conflict and who courageously and creatively resisted the war.

As one of the grantees of the Kroc Institute’s Legacy Project and a former student of our Master of Global Affairs in International Peace Studies program, Matthew’s work exemplifies how the lessons of Colombia’s peace process continue to inspire and shape the efforts of peacebuilders around the world.

A Personal Journey into Peacebuilding

The exhibition, “There is a Future if There is Truth: From Wounded Colombia to Possible Colombia,” continues the dissemination and education strategy around the landmark report and legacy delivered by the Truth Commission. Available at https://hayfuturosihayverdad.co/hay-futuro-si-hay-verdad/

For me, Matthew, this work holds a deeply personal significance. Colombia’s transitional justice system is the first to address conflict-related violence based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. As a queer man with Colombian roots, I had the privilege of contributing to The Legacy Project for my graduate capstone research at the University of Notre Dame. I explored how Colombia’s Truth Commission incorporated LGBTQ+ people into its gender approach and what lessons it offers for global peacebuilding.

With the support of a Kellogg Legacy grant, my journey with the project took me to Colombia, where I engaged directly with the people and organizations whose stories and contributions are now preserved in the Digital Platform. In Bogotá and Barranquilla, I met with the Truth Commission’s Gender Working Group and civil society leaders who ensured LGBTQ+ perspectives were central to peacebuilding. These encounters underscored a truth that is as simple as it is profound: peace cannot be sustainable if it fails to account for the most marginalized—their voices, experiences and agency need to be central to the process of building a more equal, secure, and peaceful society for all.

Among the many facets of its work, the Gender Working Group set out to address a fundamental challenge—how to document and analyze the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals during Colombia’s decades-long conflict. One of its pioneering achievements was integrating sexual orientation and gender identity into interview record forms, marking the first time a state-based entity in Colombia systematically gathered this disaggregated data. Another cornerstone of the Commission’s work was its adoption of prejudice-based violence as a form of gender-based violence. This framing captured the lived realities of the people who were targeted by armed actors based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. These innovations were critical, not only for creating visibility but also for uncovering systematic patterns of violence and exclusion.

A physical copy of “The Truth is Rainbow” subchapter within “My Body is the Truth,” the Colombian Truth Commission’s Volume on Gender. Photo by Matthew Bocanumenth

Within the commission’s Volume on Gender, the subchapter, The Truth is Rainbow, documents the brutal and systematic violence endured by LGBTQ+ people during the conflict. This chapter comes to life through the stories of individuals like that of La Poderosa.

A multitude of testimonies provided the necessary evidence for the Commission to conclude that LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly those in rural and Afro-descendant communities, were systematically persecuted by both paramilitaries and the FARC-EP. These armed actors weaponized sexual violence, forced displacement, torture, assassinations and other atrocities as tools of social control, exploiting deeply rooted societal prejudices to target LGBTQ+ people. Afro-descendant individuals, like La Poderosa, often faced compounded layers of violence due to intersecting racial and gender discrimination, in which multiple systems of oppressions converge.

This violence thrived in a society where LGBTQ+ individuals were already stigmatized and dehumanized. Armed groups knew their actions would often go unchallenged because of a tacit societal complicity that viewed LGBTQ+ people as being inferior. The state’s inaction, complicity, and failure to provide protection further exacerbated these harms, leaving LGBTQ+ individuals even more vulnerable. La Poderosa’s story illustrates how societal norms associating difference with deviance, reinforced by institutional neglect, fueled the gender persecution of LGBTQ+ people—and underscores the urgent need for both society and the state to play active roles in transforming these conditions.

Yet, even amid such pervasive violence, LGBTQ+ individuals demonstrated remarkable resilience. The Truth is Rainbow chapter shines a light on this strength, with La Poderosa’s story serving as a powerful example. After enduring two abductions, sexual violence, and forced displacements, he returned to his community and turned to bullerengue—a traditional Afro-Colombian musical genre rooted in resistance—to heal and rebuild. “These experiences have pained my soul deeply, but they have also made me stronger,” he reflected. Teaching bullerengue to children and youth, he transformed it into a tool for cultural change, using his lyrics to denounce violence and advocate for healing. “We were crushed by violence, but those of us who have resisted are still here, working to build a peaceful Colombia,” he declared.

La Poderosa’s activism and music show how many LGBTQ+ people transformed the meanings of their identities—targeted as vulnerabilities—into sources of strength, resisting oppression and transforming their circumstances. His testimony, like so many others, demonstrates the importance of preserving these voices in the Digital Platform—not merely as records of past atrocities, but as essential tools to challenge discriminatory norms and advance the work of peacebuilding.

Lessons from Colombia to the World

As I reflect on what I witnessed in Colombia, I’m struck by the power of collaboration fundamentally rooted in solidarity. The success of the Truth Commission’s gender approach was the product of unity between the women’s and LGBTQ+ movements in Colombia.

Today, these efforts continue as part of the broader transitional justice system, which has also broken new ground in addressing LGBTQ+ inclusion through its judicial arm, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP). While the Truth Commission focused on uncovering the full scope of violence and its root causes, the JEP has taken on the judicial responsibility of prosecuting those responsible for the gravest crimes. To date, the JEP has charged former combatants with crimes against humanity for targeting LGBTQ+ individuals, recognizing these acts as gender persecution—a landmark international precedent. The tribunal has also opened a dedicated judicial case that focuses on conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence, including crimes against LGBTQ+ individuals. The lessons from the Truth Commission’s work in this area are already being used in the JEP’s approach, highlighting the potential for the integral system for peace to tap into the potential of the insights thus far.

Colombia’s peace process sets not only a national but also a global precedent with important implications. While international frameworks like the United Nations’ Women, Peace, and Security agenda have made significant strides in addressing gender-based violence, they often fail to account for the experiences of LGBTQ+ communities. Colombia’s peace process challenges these frameworks to be more inclusive, offering a vision of peace that embraces a broader range of gender identities, sexual orientations, and expressions.

From the Truth Commission’s groundbreaking work to the JEP’s historic recognition of gender persecution as a crime against humanity, Colombia’s transitional justice process has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to addressing gender and power in a comprehensive, inclusive way.

Amid a global authoritarian backlash against LGBTQ+ human rights and increasing hostility toward queer, trans and intersex people, Colombia’s experience shows us that progress is possible—but only when we reject division and stand in solidarity while embracing our differences. Addressing the root causes of violence requires confronting the societal norms and structures that perpetuate harm. If Colombia—a nation emerging from over half a century of armed conflict—can take such bold steps toward tackling these entrenched hierarchies of gender and power, then the international community must do the same. It’s time for global frameworks, from transitional justice to the Women, Peace, and Security agenda, to embrace the lessons of Colombia’s peace process and commit to building a future that leaves no one behind. It’s time for LGBTQ+ voices like that of La Poderosa to be heard.

Josefina Echavarría Álvarez is a Professor of the Practice and the Director of the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM) project at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Under her leadership, the Barometer Initiative in Colombia carries out official monitoring of the implementation of the 2016 Final Agreement between the government and the former FARC-EP. Josefina also directs the Legacy Project at the University of Notre Dame for “Preserving and Engaging the Digital Archive of the Colombian Truth Commission.”

Matthew Bocanumenth is the Manager of External Affairs at the Council for Global Equality—a coalition of U.S.-based human rights organizations promoting a strong U.S. voice for the human rights of LGBTQ+ communities globally. As a Scholar at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and a Fellow at Outright International, Matthew concentrated on research exploring Colombia’s innovative inclusion of queer and trans individuals in peacebuilding. Previously, at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), he focused on transitional justice and human rights in Colombia.