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San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico – Casa Venus is a hotel with a minimalist white-walled exterior that opened on a main artery in the center of San Cristobal de las Casas in September 2023 Opened on the road. At the entrance, visitors can see the hotel’s logo, which depicts Venus, the Roman goddess of love, emerging from a carnivorous plant. A sign nearby indicates that the space is non-discriminatory.
Casa Venus is the first hotel founded and managed by a transgender person in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas’ second largest tourist city. The company has 12 employees who are non-binary, gay, lesbian, trans or ally. Since opening, it has been described as a pioneering space for inclusive employment in the local area.
The hotel’s founder, a transgender man named Pen, said the project emerged as an alternative given the “lack of opportunities for trans and queer people” who often suffer discrimination.
Although Mexico has anti-discrimination laws and the constitution prohibits discrimination, 37% of members of the LGBT community said they have experienced discrimination, according to the 2022 National Discrimination Survey conducted by the National Institute of Mexico. Statistics and geography. The survey also showed that less than half of workers in this group have signed a written contract (47.2%) or have access to social security services (48.4%), both of which are basic rights under the country’s federal law, Ley Federal del Trabajo. labor.
“We’re very careful in selecting our team,” said Pan, who prefers to be called by that name.
Casa Venus employees say working in a restaurant gives them a sense of security they don’t have in other jobs.
“This is my first time working in a space like this, working with people in the community, where I feel at ease and accepted, no one is looking at me, no judgment, no labels,” said Ana, receptionist at Casa Venus Ramírez said in the interview.
Like her, hotel manager Tomás Chiu is transgender and said, “This is the first time I feel recognized in the workplace.”
Qiu said that in his previous job, he faced discrimination from bosses who would use female pronouns to refer to him and restrict the activities he was allowed to engage in.
According to data released in 2023 by the National Minimum Wage Commission (CONASAMI), the federal agency responsible for setting minimum wage standards, transgender men are 18.3% likely to experience violence in the workplace. The figure for transgender women rose to 36.9%. Both numbers are higher than cisgender men and women (14.3% and 16.1%, respectively) and non-binary people (16.6%).
Visitors can feel the atmosphere of respect and recognition within the team. Alan Eduardo Pérez Martín, a tourist from Villahermosa in Tabasco state, said he decided to stay in Casavina based on recommendations he saw on social media Si Hotel.
“The people who work here are very accommodating, which is not common,” he said. “Witnessing people being able to express their personality adds style and a pleasant feel to the hotel.”
Promote inclusion in the workplace
Casavinas’s fight against discrimination has attracted the attention of other businessmen and activists in the region.
Maricarmen de la Encarnación Petate, an advocate for transgender women’s rights in Chiapas, said the hotel was a “milestone in the recognition and respect of identity” in a region considered “cosmopolitan but very traditional and very Catholic”.
According to CONNASAMI, trans women have an 18.8% chance of being denied employment in 2021. By comparison, cisgender men are 5.1% more likely to be denied a job and cisgender women are 4.3% more likely to be denied a job. Eduardo Villatoro, president of the Cámara Nacional de Comercio, Servicios y Turismo in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, an organization that promotes the interests of local businesses, is excited about Casa Venus and hopes more employers will follow its example.
“What the hotel is doing [spreads] Villatoro said of the LGBT community:
Pan, who said San Cristóbal de las Casas is “an extremely transphobic place,” said he will continue to work to combat workplace discrimination and provide dignified jobs for community members.
“Making the fringe ‘normal’ feels like a political act,” he said.
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