Yobany Orozco Valenciano, a former mayoral candidate in Colombia’s Huila province and current senatorial candidate with the Alternative Indigenous and Social Movement, proposed last week that the country legalize bigamy and allow men to marry multiple women. In a video posted on YouTube and widely shared on social media, Orozco said that bigamy would solve the country’s ongoing debate regarding homosexual marriage. It was not immediately clear how the two topics are related.
“Hello from Colombia, friends. Thank you God for giving me the opportunity to be here and thank you for giving me a minute of your time. As the 2018-2022 elections are approaching, my professional team and I are trying to create policies that reach everyone and everywhere in our country. We have therefore developed the following policy”, he said in the video, before elaborating.
“We will always be against homosexual marriage. We are trying to study a mechanism that will be the base of our next law proposal. My proposal will be very clear. According to statistics, there are more women than men in Colombia. We want every man to have the ability to marry two women if they wish, and every woman to marry two men as well, if they think it is convenient. This will maintain the fundamental basis of society, which is family, between a man and a woman.”, he said.
The comments were widely shared in Colombia and beyond, ranging from outrage to humor. Many criticized production of the video, which included music played on a radio in the background rather than any video editing tools. Watch the full video below.
