Unión Afirmativa [Affirmative Union] was formed on November 24, 2000 with the purpose of ensuring the application of international standards for protecting homosexual persons against discrimination based on their sexual orientation in Venezuela. To this day it continues to be the tireless voice of the LGBTI rights in the country.

La Asociación Civil Unión Afirmativa de Venezuela [The Civil Association Affirmative Union of Venezuela] is a non-profit organisation that has been working since 2002 to promote knowledge and application of international human rights standards that protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation. “In particular, we promote the legal protection of same-sex couples, according to the recommendations issued by different bodies within the universal system of protection of human rights and the Inter-American system,” said Quiteria Franco, general coordinator of the NGO.

Affirmative Union is an organisation that not only seeks legal recognition of same-sex relationships and same-sex families but also works for the rights of LGBTI people, the protection of trans and intersex people and women against gender violence. It is the only sexual minorities NGO in the country that has obtained a ruling by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) on the rights of the social group through the Sentence 190-2008. Furthermore, it successfully pushed for the inclusion of the same-sex couples register in the 2011 national census.

Their trajectory have allowed them to carry the LGBT flag and have earned them a reputation in Venezuela as a key organisation in the safeguarding of the rights of the population.

“Originally, we were campaigning for the prompt legal recognition of same-sex couples and all the rights that derive from that civil union. Little by little, we have been expanding our activities and today we are doing research, documentation and reporting on the human rights situation of LGBTI people, activism and national and international advocacy”, explained the advocate.