When Erika Venadero was 15 years old, she attended a retreat that she thought would bring her closer to God. But instead she found herself held captive, deprived of food, and then raped by men who told her she should be thankful because now she was “a real woman”.
I met Venadero, now 26, in Mexico City last month. She said that when she first started to feel romantically attracted to women, at 15, she was confused and had many questions. Homophobia is widespread in her community and she went to a religious family friend for guidance. He signed her up for what she thought would be a spiritual retreat.
She described leaving on a Friday night from the city centre of Guadalajara, her hometown. A van drove her and 14 other teenagers four hours away. Venadero was the only girl, and one of only two LGBTIQ people in the group dominated by young men with experience of drug or alcohol abuse and, in some cases, suicide attempts.
