Gustavo Petro appointed a transgender person as 'vice minister' for Women

The communist president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, appointed Charlotte Schneider Callejas, a man who believes he is a woman, as "Vice Minister" for Women in the Ministry of Equality and Equity.

Schneider, born in Cuba and later naturalized in Colombia, graduated from the Faculty of Biology at the University of Havana and is a specialist in "Feminist and Gender Studies" from the National University of Colombia.

In the public sphere, he served in 2023 as regional director in Bogotá for the Department for Social Prosperity. Later, he joined the Ministry of Equality, and his promotion to the vice ministry was recently confirmed in an interview he gave during an event organized by the Ministry of Labor.

Charlotte Schneider's arrival at the vice ministry caused strong criticism on social media, where the appointment of a man to represent women is questioned, in a ministry that, moreover, should not exist.

Meanwhile, the appointment of Juan Carlos Florián Silva at the beginning of August as Minister of Equality unleashed a wave of reactions on social media and in various political sectors, both because of his past as a porn actor and because of several of his public statements.

"I refer to myself in the feminine because I am a person and I am a marica (...) I am not gay," Florián said in an interview, in which he also replied to allegations about his status as an HIV carrier, arguing that these criticisms seek to delegitimize his role as a public servant.

Regarding Schneider's appointment, Colombian political sectors point out that positions linked to the gender and women's agenda are being filled exclusively by representatives of the LGBTIQ+ community.

With the ratification of Charlotte Schneider as "Vice Minister" and a porn actor as minister, Colombia's Ministry of Equality advances the government's "diversity, inclusion, and gender perspective" agenda of Gustavo Petro.