Timeline of LGBTQ history in Ecuador

This article presents a timeline of the most relevant events in the history of LGBT people in Ecuador. The earliest manifestations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Ecuador were in the pre-Columbian era, in cultures such as Valdivia, Tumaco-La Tolita, and Bahía, of which evidence has been found suggesting that homosexuality was common among its members. Documents by Hispanic chroniclers and historians—such as Pedro Cieza de León, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, and Garcilaso de la Vega—point to the Manteño-Huancavilca culture in particular as one in which homosexuality was openly practiced and accepted [es]. However, with the Spanish conquest, a system of repression was established against anyone who practiced homosexuality in the territories that currently make up Ecuador.
Homosexuality remained absent from the Ecuadorian Criminal Code until 1871, when it was classified for the first time as a crime with a penalty of four to eight years in prison. During the subsequent decades, there was little mention of the subject, mainly due to the criminalization of homosexuality and the conservatism present in Ecuadorian society at the time. A noticeable change took place in the late 1970s, when waves of migration to major cities and the effect of events such as the Stonewall riots caused an increase in the visibility of LGBT people, who began to hold informal meetings that would lead to the birth of an Ecuadorian gay community. However, these activities led to a spike in police repression, mainly during the administration of León Febres-Cordero Ribadeneyra (1984–1988).
The event that marked the turning point in LGBT rights activism was the raid on the Bar Abanicos, a gay bar in the city of Cuenca that was the subject of police intervention in June 1997 and where dozens of people were arrested, and then tortured and raped. The event sparked criticism nationwide and led the various LGBT groups in the country to unite for the first time in a single front, in order to demand the decriminalization of homosexuality and organize the first marches and public demonstrations of LGBT people in the history of Ecuador. Finally, on 25 November 1997, the Constitutional Court decriminalized homosexuality.
The first years of the 21st century were characterized by greater visibility and social acceptance of sexual diversity. With the implementation of the 2008 Constitution, LGBT people witnessed progress being made regarding their rights, such as the legalization of de facto unions between persons of the same sex [es]. Recent years have brought more advances in favor of the demands of LGBT groups, with several of them obtained through rulings of the Constitutional Court, such as Case 0011-18-CN [es] and Case 10-18-CN, decided on 12 June 2019 and through which same-sex marriage was legalized in Ecuador.
There is archaeological evidence, as well as chronicles, of homosexuality being practiced openly—before the Spanish conquest—among the pre-Columbian peoples that inhabited what is now Ecuador. Ceramics have been found from the Valdivia culture that showed this type of relationship as part of its representations of eroticism and fertility. Everything changed with the arrival of the Europeans, who imposed a negative view of homosexuality based on their Catholic beliefs.