Sawt Falasteen - More than 100,000 take part in Colombia's largest-ever Pride parade

Claudia Lopez, Bogota's first lesbian mayor, addressed crowds waving rainbow flags and performing dances in the central Simon Bolivar Park.

"Here we will continue, every day and hour marching with pride for what we are, because we have the same duties and we claim for the same rights. Not one more, not one less," she said.

Lopez later wrote on Twitter: "Forty years ago in the first Pride March there were 30 people, today we are +100,000! The biggest march in history!"

Pride parades also took place in cities including Medellin, Cali, and Barranquilla.

"I have been attending the march for 11 years, and it has been a long time since I saw a march with so many people," Camila, a businesswoman, told AFP.

"People's perceptions are changing and that means a lot."

The LGBTQ community is a frequent target of violence in Colombia, with at least 39 LGBTQ people killed in 2022, according to authorities.

Colombia's ombudsman's office reported in March that of 394 cases of "violence by prejudice" investigated last year, 238 were against transgender people, 61 against lesbian women, 123 against gay men and 21 against bisexual people.

Human rights activist Danilo Huertas, who took part in the Bogota parade, said it was "in memory of all the people who have been victims of conflict" for their sexual orientation, "but also a day to celebrate because... we have made progress."

Q.Bulbul--SF-PST