Milestone for LGBTQ and women's rights: Bogota, Colombia elects first woman and lesbian mayor, Claudia López: 'We united, we won and we made history!'

'Many in the LGBTQ community praised Claudia López's victory as an important step forward in a country where gay and lesbians still confront harassment,' says NBC. Claudia López won the race for mayor of Bogota on a platform promising to combat corruption and advance equal rights for minority communities. The Alianza Verde candidate captured over 1.1 million votes, or about 35 percent of the vote, defeating runner-up Carlos Galán by 2.7 percentage points.

Pic: Claudia López, wikiCommons

With her victory, López also becomes the first openly lesbian mayor of a capital city in Latin America, a region slowly advancing in improving LGBT rights but where long-standing cultural biases and inequality remain barriers.

'This is the day of the woman,' she said to a jubilant crowd. 'We knew that only by uniting could we win. We did that. We united, we won and we made history!'

Many in the LGBT community praised López’s victory as an important step forward in a country where gay and lesbians still confront harassment.

Read more: Huffington Post.

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