An Interview with Laura Weinstein about LGTBI Public Policy in the Colombian Institutional Context

Abstract

This interview is part of a doctoral research project that aims to make a comparison between the national LGBTI public policy of Colombia approved in 2018 and the public policy for trans people of Uruguay approved in the same year. The research favors an interpretative approach that seeks to access the local knowledge that surrounds each case study to make explicit the meaning and scope with which the actors give meaning to the policy and the messages it emits in relation to the commitment of decision-makers to promote institutional openings for the recognition of people with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. Based on the empirical research carried out in the Colombian case, Laura Weinstein was identified as a relevant social actor in policy design as a result of her work as director of the Action and Support Group for Trans People (GAAT) and the filing of a protection action against the Ministry of the Interior for not issuing the national public policy action plan aimed at the LGBTI social sectors. This interview shows Laura’s positioning in this process and revitalizes the current discussions that take place within the LGBTI movements about the future of political advocacy work, to strengthen and bring this intervention device closer to the agendas and interests of social groups that constitute the target group of those policies.