Businesses and governments across Latin America are increasingly attempting to attract the LGBT+ market.
Felipe Cardenas, president of the Chamber of LGBT Merchants in Colombia, suggests that a focus on the economic benefits of LGBT+ inclusion is helping to shift attitudes.
“Social activism has helped a lot, but we’ve been working hard on economic activism as well,” Cardenas told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“Colombia remains a very conservative, Catholic country … (but) it’s given even the most conservative sectors of the Colombian business community and public opinion a different perspective.”
In the past year, Ecuador launched its first LGBT Chamber of Commerce, Mexico signed an agreement with the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association to promote LGBT+ tourism, and Colombia (where same-sex marriage was legalized in 2016) hosted an LGBT+ business fair attracting over 3000 visitors and 50 companies.
Still, persistent anti-LGBT+ discrimination and violence continues to be a problem in many parts of Latin America.
Read more at the Thomson Reuters Foundation.