Claudia López: The First LBGTQ+ Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia
On 1 January 2020, Claudia López Hernández became the first openly gay person to be sworn in as mayor of Bogotá, Colombia’s capital city. López was elected in October 2019 after running a ruthless campaign against corruption, placing a particular focus on environmental and social issues. However, the election was not without controversy. According to the electoral observation mission, seven candidates for the mayoral position were killed, a dozen were attacked and more than one hundred received threats across the country.
Before becoming mayor, Claudia López was a Colombian Senator between 2014 and 2018 and the vice-presidential candidate for the Green Alliance party in the 2018 election. Arlene Tickner, political science professor at Rosario University in Bogotá contends that López’s “long-standing fight against corruption will hopefully create a battle cry that other like-minded elected officials throughout Colombia can join.” Whilst López’s brash style of speaking and strong opposition to Colombia’s right-wing politicians made her popular with many, public opinion on her election was mixed as older members of the Colombian population remain conservative in their views.
As Bogotá is Colombia’s political and economic powerhouse, the capital city’s mayoral seat is often considered the second-most important elected position in Colombia after the presidency. Until 1985, Bogotá’s mayor was appointed directly by the sitting president. Therefore, López is not only the first gay mayor of Bogotá, but also the first woman elected into the office. Historian Nem Zuhué Patiño notes that López’s success “has to be understood in relation to the culture that has historically characterised Colombian society, that is a culture that is very closed off.”
Despite being a conservative and strictly Catholic country, Colombia is now considered among the most progressive nations in Latin America. Colombian congress legalised same-sex marriage in 2016 and previously in 2011 passed a law banning discrimination on sexual orientation. The ruling means that Colombia is the fourth Latin American nation to fully allow same-sex marriage, after Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. In 2018, Colombia was voted South America’s Leading LGBT Destination by the World Travel Awards, as both Bogotá and the Caribbean city of Cartagena are popular with LGBTQ+ tourists. With López’s appointment, it appears that the once ultra-traditional country is slowly stepping into the twenty-first century.
In her victory speech after winning the election, López reasserted her hopes to combat issues such as racism, classism and homophobia in Colombian society. López told CNN that “Colombia is a country that has advanced in many things but still it’s got a lot of machismo, it’s a very conservative country.” Nonetheless, liberal Colombians seem hopeful that the new mayor will succeed in her fight against corruption.
López has also taken huge steps in transforming Bogotá into a modern, cosmopolitan city. For instance, in March, 2020, López implemented Bogotá’s “Solidarity System”, an initiative set-up to provide a basic income to those unable to meet living costs as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown. López also has plans to reduce the impacts of poverty on women, and reduce inequality in the city.
In December 2019, after being elected as Mayor, López married her long-term partner and fellow politician Angélica Lozano in a private civil ceremony. Posting on Twitter, López described the occasion as “the happiest moment of her life” and shared photographs of the day with her followers. Now, this twenty-first century woman is likely to keep pushing Bogotá and Colombia as a nation to reconsider its occasionally antiquated opinions and beliefs.
