It was the late ‘90s when a 14-year-old boy was taken from a quiet street in San Luis, Colombia and recruited into a guerrilla group named Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC).
Pushed into a car moments after playing with friends, Darla Cristina González Arias’s capture is not uncommon. Many teenage boys in her area were also taken. But as she grew older, she knew her case was rare: She had to escape the militant group because she needed to transition.
In Colombia, it was the decade of drug lord Pablo Escobar’s death—as well as the decade in which an earthquake killed over 1,900 people in one of Colombia’s most economically important cities, Armenia. And it was the 30th year of the conflict between the Colombian army and guerrilla groups such as the FARC.
It was the turn of the 21st century when González, then 15, plotted her escape from the FARC. Being LGBTQ was forbidden in the group, and she had witnessed cruel punishments inflicted upon militants who were discovered to be lesbians. González always knew she was transgender, but it was also sexual abuse that pushed her to risk death and leave the militant group. Her time with the group became insufferable after she was raped by a FARC commander. She knew she was trapped inside the camp with her abuser, so she began to plot her escape.
González is just one of 1,859 registered LGBTQ victims of Colombia’s armed conflict. Run by the Colombian Victims Unit, the registry is used by victims of the conflict to record acts inflicted on them by members of illegal groups. However, critics say the number of affected people is in reality much higher — because many victims are afraid to speak out about their sexuality and gender identity.
A peace deal was signed in 2016 to end violence between the Colombian government and FARC guerrillas. The deal was the first of its kind to include details of the persecution of minority groups, such as LGBTQ people, in its negotiations.
Of the LGBTQ victims, the most reported cases are forced displacement (73.3 percent), threats (14.2 percent), homicides (5.3 percent) and sexual violence (2.4 percent), according to a 2017 report by Colombia Diversa.
Wilson Castañeda Castro is the chief executive of the LGBTQ Colombian charity Caribe Afirmativo. He works with queer and transgender victims of the conflict across the Caribbean coast regions of Colombia.
In 2010 Castañeda spearheaded an initiative called “Houses of Peace,” (in Spanish “Casas de Paz”). Two years ago the project was officially completed and four houses were converted into safe houses to support LGBTQ victims of the conflict. Around 200 people permanently use them for support, with an additional 50 to 100 people using them on a temporary basis.
Castañeda’s charity started the project after seeing how the conflict was affecting the LGBTQ community and began the task of identifying the areas of the country that impacted LGBTQ people the most and how.