Cathedral of San Gil / Oscar Espinosa/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 24, 2021 / 15:01 pm (CNA).

An LGBT activist danced and stripped to scanty underwear in the atrium in front of the cathedral in the town of San Gil, Colombia this week. 

The suggestive dance took place amid the ongoing demonstrations for the national strike, and as part of “gay pride” month, creating a controversy on social media and outrage among Catholics.

On the night of June 21, a group of LGBT activists gathered outside the cathedral in San Gil, which is located about 150 miles north of Bogota, and watched a member of their group dance and strip to the rhythm of the music.

In a blurry video posted on Facebook by the Colombian media El Regional, a voice is heard over a loudspeaker system presenting the “performance” by “Sasha” who before starting to dance, exclaims: “Long live the queers and long live the whores!”

“Religion cannot oppress our way of loving, love is love and the strike must be diverse, inclusive and free of stereotypes. We are love, we are diversity,” says a message from the LGBT group as reported by Blu Radio.

A national strike called by different leftist organizations began in Colombia on April 28, and has been marked by violence and excesses in different cities, leaving at least 50 dead and dozens injured.

A citizen, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Blu Radio that the dance presented by the LGBT community showed “a lack of respect, vulgarity and bad values.” He also condemned “their disrespect for a symbol of religion such as the main atrium of the cathedral.”

“They can do their crazy things elsewhere, but not in front of children, families and parts of the community that don’t share these ideas, sexual orientations and ideologies,” he added.

On the El Regional Facebook post, a user identified as Ollu Veri said “at that time the Eucharist was being celebrated, where there were a number of people praying and interceding for their families, going through the pain of losing their loved ones. Put yourself in the place of these families! There are many places in San Gil to make your rights known.”

Although the post has several comments in favor of the dance of the LGBT group, the user named Henry Celis said that what was done in the atrium of the cathedral “is simply unacceptable. Every church is the house of God ”