“Dark-skinned, poor and queer” is how Edgar Solis – a member of the Maricas Bolivia (Bolivia Queers) movement – defines himself, a lawbreaker at times but a tenacious defender of free love in a country where gays experience at times severe discrimination because of their sexual orientation.

Along with Roberto Condori, Solis is fighting to create “an alternative discourse” in Bolivia, where the gay culture “has become stereotyped.”

“We question the word gay a lot as a stereotype, for which we want to substitute the word ‘marica’ (queer) as a redesignation of that insult, but also because we need to create an alternative discourse to this gay institutionality that has suddenly come to Bolivia,” Solis told EFE.

A few days ago, activists made their concerns known at the Cultural Center of Spain in La Paz. Read more via Latin American Herald Tribune