The nation is in the midst of a 50-year, low-intensity civil war. Much of the country is governed by large landowners and their paramilitias, or by the rebel FARC movement. The war — financed on both sides by narcotics — has generated millions of refugees who are displaced both domestically and abroad.

Given those conditions, a bill to recognize same-sex couples seems mainly symbolic in scope to me. I applaud gay Colombians for seeking its passage, but I don’t see how the bill, if passed, would have had much impact in a nation of displaced people, death squads, and spotty governmental control.