Noticias

During the Pope's visit to Paraguay, the invitation sent to Simon Cazal to attend the meeting with civil society representatives made headlines nationally and internationally, as it is the first time that there is an approach of a Pope to an LGBT organization.

The meeting was held on 11 July at the Estadio León Condou, and the invitation was sent by the Paraguayan Episcopal Conference, which "recognized the high impact of SOMOSGAY in the Paraguayan society," as it was mentioned.

The enormous impact of this event was reflected in the national and international press. Renowned media such as The Wall Street Journal, Italian portals like Ital Intermedia, il Giornale and Euronews, The Guardian, Buzzfeed, The Advocate and other various media from countries like Japan, Germany, Turkey, Argentina and Brazil. CNN also provided a special coverage at the headquarters of the LGBT Community Center in Asuncion. For the same reason, Simon Cazal was invited to "The Stream", an Al Jazeera television program for English speakers, through a video call interview to discuss “Catholicism in Latin America”, with panelists from Uruguay, Chile and Argentina.

In a special program produced and broadcast by Telefuturo called "Francis, the Pope of All", hosted by renowned paraguayan journalist Menchi Barriocanal, catholic activists of SOMOSGAY spoke on air about the invitation received, along with their experience of life from their faith and how their families struggle day to day against discrimination.

The day of the event, Saturday July 11, Pope Francis affirmed that "Diversity is necessary. The richness of life is diversity itself. The common good exists celebrating our differences, the unity is not uniformity, is unity in diversity, a unity that does not break but celebrates diversity, no people are first, second or third, we must respect dignity of all”.

"It is a symbolic step, but very important. It can help change hearts and bring people to the movement. Mainly, it helps to dispel the false duality between being religious and supporting human rights and LGBT people. Both things can be done without prejudice and these actions help to add support of the people to fight against discrimination and homophobia" says Simon Cazal, co-founder and Executive Director of SOMOSGAY.

At SOMOSGAY, we all continue to work and progress has been made, but much remains to be done, especially in tasks that correspond to the State, through its agencies and ministries. We need to move forward with a civic education to help reduce discrimination in general and homophobia in particular to help eliminate prejudice and consolidate a real democracy that respects the human rights of all Paraguayans.