Far-left President of Colombia Gustavo Petro on Sunday reinstated former gay pornographic actor Juan Carlos Florián as the nation’s “equality minister” after “readjusting” the gender parity quotas among his cabinet, local outlets reported Monday.
Florián, a close ally of Petro, is a longtime LGBTQIA2 activist that refers to himself as “female,” a claim Florían has reportedly justified on the assertion that he is a “person and a f*ggot” but “is not gay.”
Petro said in July that Florián previously served as “LGBTI Director” of Bogotá Humana, a precursor organization to the President’s Colombia Humana leftist party. According to Petro, Florían received “death threats” for his work in the organization and had to exile himself to Paris, France, where he had to “resort to using a webcam to survive.”
Petro originally appointed Florían as equality minister in August. Days later, Florían asked to be formally addressed as “ministra,” the Spanish word for a female minister instead of “ministro,” the word used for a male minister, on the grounds that he is a person of “non-hegemonic” gender.
Last week, the Administrative Court of Cundinamarca admitted a lawsuit filed by Colombian law school student Juan Manuel López and suspended Florían from his ministerial position. Lopéz reportedly argued in the lawsuit that Florían’s designation violated Colombia’s “Gender Parity” law, a legislation passed in 2024 that states there must be an equal 50/50 representation between men and women in high-ranking government positions. The lawsuit argued that Florían, a man, broke the ministerial gender parity in favor of men.
Petro condemned the court order as “unnecessary” and “homophobic” and claimed that there is “parity” in his cabinet “whether Juan is a man or a woman, or both.” Florían resigned as minister on Thursday.
According to Colombian outlets, Petro signed a new decree on Sunday reinstating Florían as equality minister. Petro signed the decree hours after he designated Carina Murcia the nation’s new technology minister, replacing former Minister Julián Molina. Interior Minister Armando Benedetti reportedly claimed that the appointment of Murcia as new technology minister “remedies” the gender parity issue and that, as such, Florían could resume his ministerial duties “without any problem.”
Benedetti, another controversial member of Petro’s cabinet, asserted to reporters that the lawsuit against Florían now “lost its basis” and reaffirmed that “the government complies with the quota law.”
According to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, Petro’s hasty reinstatement of Florían hours after he accepted his resignation and the rushed protocols involved were meant to allow Florían to accompany Petro as part of his delegation to the United States this week.
While neither the Administrative Court of Cundinamarca nor President Gustavo Petro have publicly commented on the matter at press time, Florían published a message on Instagram referring to himself as “ministra” of Equality and in the “female” person.
“Happy week to you all. Today, I once again assume my role as Colombia’s Minister [ministra] of Equality and Equity. In this government of change, discrimination and hatred will NOT BE TOLERATED! At your service,” Florían wrote.
The Equality Ministry is one of the most controversial offices in Petro’s leftist government. The ministry was formally established by Petro in June 2023. The president installed Vice President Francia Márquez as its inaugural minister.
Márquez resigned from the Ministry in February 2024 – but remains vice president – in the aftermath of Petro’s disastrous national broadcast in which he called for the legalization of cocaine and mused about Greek eroticism. The broadcast, an attempted cabinet meeting, resulted in Márquez and several other Colombian ministers openly feuding with each other while Petro focused on eroticism and drugs.
Since then, Márquez has distanced herself from Petro’s government, going as far as to publicly condemn the government on several occasions, but retaining her democratically elected vice-presidential position. Márquez claimed during an interview in August that Petro’s government imposed “obstacles” to her during the creation of the Equality Ministry.
In that same interview, Márquez explained that Petro had originally ordered her to appoint Florián as vice minister for diversity, which she refused. Petro accepted her resignation shortly afterwards in the “equality” position and temporarily replaced her with Carlos Rosero, an “Afro-descendant” activist.
“I told the president that I did not want to expose myself to a higher level of violence by appointing Florián and that I was not going to appoint him. It was at that moment that I submitted my letter of resignation,” Márquez reportedly said in the interview.
Petro responded to Márquez’s criticism with remarks widely considered racist. In July, during another of his broadcasted ministerial meetings, Petro issued a message reportedly addressed to Márquez, declaring, “No black person tells me that a porn actor should be excluded.”
Florián’s defense team reportedly argued that the lawsuit constituted an act of discrimination by attempting to “pigeonhole” Florían into “gender binarism, which conflicts with his non-hegemonic identity construction.” Florían’s lawyers further argued that he should be excluded from “binary calculations” as “he does not identify as male,” and as such, the Colombian ministerial cabinet would consist of “nine women, nine men, and one gender-fluid person.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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