We would not exist without the Court: discourses about non-heterosexual house holds in Colombia

Abstract

This article, based on concepts and methodological tools characteristic of socio-legal and cultural studies, analyzes the main discourses that appear in the representations of non-heterosexual households, specially same-sex couples, given by the media in Colombia, specifically in national newspapers in the period between 2007 and 2010. Recognizing the undeniable prominence of legal discourse at the time of understand the whole landscape of visibility and the existence of same-sex couples, there is a clear need to relate it to other discourses from various sources, such as medical, cultural and social. After making a journey through selected press notes related to such unions, and identifying the discourses around visibility and existence from them emerging, it is concluded, among other aspects, that despite significant jurisprudential protection that same sex couples have obtained in the country, prejudice, stereotyping and hate speech against them keep circulating regularly, being enormous obstacles to the existence of such non-heterosexual relationships.