LGBTQ Colombians Hold 'Kiss-a-Thon' to Protest Discrimination

LGBTQ Colombians staged a protest at a shopping mall in Bogota earlier this week.

The twist? The protest was a “kiss-a-thon.”

Dozens of couples kissed at the same time in the midst of a supportive crowd, in protest of an incident that happened at the mall a couple days earlier.

Two gay men, who say they were merely hugging and holding hands, were harassed by another customer who claimed they were fondling each other in front of children.

The men called police to protect themselves from harassment, but the cops fined them for indecent exposure instead.

“We want people to stop satanizing and discriminating against the LGBT community,” one of the men, Esteban Miranda, said. “We are not sick, we are not an aberration, we are citizens who are here to build a better country.”

And so the protestors gathered, wielding rainbow flags and chanting in favor of gay rights. And, of course, kissing.

“Kissing someone is no crime,” protestor Paola Gutierrez said to the crowd. “All we want is for there to be less divisions in this society, and no discrimination against people over their sexual preferences.”

Colombia has more protections for its LGBTQ citizens than many South American countries, but the stigma in the public eye is still very real. A report released last year revealed that while the overall murder rate in Colombia has dropped, the number of LGBTQ people murdered has not corresponded.