Ex-porn actor to be Colombian equality minister

By AFP August 3, 2025 | 06:32 pm PT

A former porn actor and gay rights activist will be Colombia's new equality minister, a government source told AFP Friday.

Juan Carlos Florian is to be named to the cabinet, an official said, in a move sure to spark debate in the deeply Catholic nation.

This combination of file pictures created on August 1, 2025 shows Colombias President Gustavo Petro (L) arriving at the inauguration ceremony of Mexicos President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum at the Congress of the Union in Mexico City on October 1, 2024, and Colombian former President (2002–2010) Alvaro Uribe gesturing in a press conference after he testified about a 1997 massacre at the Attorney Generals Office in Bogotá, on November 27, 2023. Photo by AFP

This combination of file pictures created on Aug. 1, 2025 shows Colombia's President Gustavo Petro (L) arriving at the inauguration ceremony of Mexico's President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum at the Congress of the Union in Mexico City on Oct. 1, 2024, and Colombian former President (2002–2010) Alvaro Uribe gesturing in a press conference after he testified about a 1997 massacre at the Attorney General's Office in Bogotá, on Nov. 27, 2023. Photo by AFP

Florian, who was a sex worker and creator of gay porn, will head up a department that guarantees vulnerable communities get access to social programs.

He has already served as a junior minister and worked in various international organizations.

More than 50 ministers have passed through leftist Gustavo Petro's cabinet since he took office three years ago.