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When thousands of Colombians protested on August 10 to demand the resignation of the country’s openly gay education minister, few saw any greater political significance. But as the world struggles to understand why Colombians voted “No” on Sunday to a peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group, the seemingly unrelated demonstration is now being seen in a new light.
“That march in August was when the ‘Yes’ vote began to lose and the ‘No’ vote began to win,” said Wilson Castañeda Castro, director of Caribe Afirmativo, one of Colombia’s leading LGBT advocacy groups, which endorsed the peace deal. “Peace didn’t lose this past Sunday – we simply learned the results then.”