Former Porn Star Elected in Colombia

The Historic Pact party of Colombia just elected a new senator with a spicy past. Deyci Alejandra Omaña Ortiz, who might be better known by her stage name of Amaranta Hank, was sworn in as senator on July 20th.

Starting out as a sports journalist, Ortiz first gained attention in 2015 after she promised naked pictures of herself if a local soccer team got promoted to a higher division. These daring, often sex-themed wagers continued until Ortiz eventually started performing as an adult film actress in 2017. The following year, Ortiz promised to film a gangbang if Gustavo Petro won the presidential election. While Petro won the presidency in 2022, he lost in 2018 (the year Ortiz made her promise), leaving a lot of disappointed fans of Ortiz’s work. Petro is the current president of Colombia (though he will be replaced on August 7th) and leads the Historic Pact party, the same party Ortiz is now a member of. 

After approximately two years in the adult industry, Ortiz changed course and entered the world of politics. President Petro appointed her as deputy minister of the Ministry of Equality, the position she held before being elected as a senator. 

Colombia’s Senate elections are a bit different than ours here in the States. Rather than vote for a specific candidate for Senate, Colombians vote for a specific party (there are 35 officially recognized parties in Colombia). That party then has a list of candidates they choose from based on the results of the election. Colombia’s Senate has 103 seats; the Historic Pact party, for example, received roughly 22% of the vote, leaving them with 25 seats to fill. They then elect the first 25 people on their list to the Senate. Ortiz was #23 on the list, so she was narrowly elected.

Here’s the most interesting part: people may think that Ortiz got elected by hiding her X-rated past, but, in fact, she embraced it.

Guaranteeing access to social security for adult creators was a central component of her campaign, including various other policies aimed at helping adult content creators avoid discrimination and exploitation. 

In a recent campaign video, Deyci Ortiz said, “These women have been unprotected by the state, because, due to misinformation, prejudice and double standards, no one has declared to regulate [the online adult industry].” 

To her naysayers, Ortiz questions, “Why can’t a woman who was in the adult industry aspire to a popularly elected office?” She wants her constituents to know that, while she’s no longer in the adult biz, her path to office helps her understand the issues Colombians are facing. “My experience allowed me to understand inequality, the struggle for freedom and the popular economy, arguments that I now promise to bring directly into legislative debate,” Ortiz explained. “The problem is that society consumes adult films but denies us the possibility of speaking in spaces of power.” 

Adult performers have become lawmakers before, though it’s admittedly rare. In the late 20th century, former adult performer Ilona Staller was elected to Italy’s government after a prosperous career in television and radio. 

In addition to these adult performer-focused initiatives, Ortiz has also campaigned on issues like mental health and sexual abuse prevention.

While OnlyFans creators are fighting off censorship from large social media platforms here in the U.S., Mrs. Ortiz’s election to the Senate in Colombia certainly signals that South America is ready to accept the online adult industry, or at least hear them out.