Welcome to Casa Venus, a LGBT-Led Hotel That’s Radically Redefining Hospitality

SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS, MEXICO — Casa Venus, a hotel with a simple white-walled exterior, opened its doors on a main thoroughfare in downtown San Cristóbal de Las Casas in September 2023. In the entrance, visitors see the hotel’s logo, which depicts Venus, the Roman goddess of love, emerging from a carnivorous plant. A nearby sign announces that there is no discrimination in this space.

Casa Venus is the first hotel founded and managed by trans people in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, the second-most touristic city in the state of Chiapas. It employs 12 people who identify as nonbinary, gay, lesbian, trans or allies. Since opening, it has been described as a pioneering local space for inclusive employment.

The hotel’s founder, a trans man named Pen, says the project arose as an alternative given “the lack of opportunities for trans and queer people,” groups that experience discrimination on a regular basis.

Despite anti-discrimination laws in Mexico, and despite the fact that the constitution prohibits discrimination, 37% of people who identify as members of the LGBT community say they experience discrimination, according to the 2022 National Survey on Discrimination, conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography. The survey also showed that less than half of workers in this group have written contracts (47.2%) or access to social security services (48.4%), both of which are basic rights stipulated in the Ley Federal del Trabajo, the country’s federal law governing labor.

Marissa Revilla, GPJ Mexico

Tomás Chiu, a manager, and Pen, the hotel’s founder, lead the Casa Venus team.

“We have been very intentional in selecting our team,” says Pen, who prefers to be referred to by this name.

Casa Venus employees say working in the hotel gives them a feeling of security they did not have at other jobs.

“It’s my first time working in a space like this, with people from my community, a place where I feel at ease and accepted, without people looking at me, without judgment, without labels,” says Ana Ramírez, a receptionist at Casa Venus at the time of the interview.

Like her, Tomás Chiu, one of the hotel’s managers, who is trans, says, “It’s the first time I feel validated” in a workplace.

Chiu says that in previous jobs he met with discrimination from his bosses, who would use feminine pronouns to refer to him and limit the activities he was permitted to do.

Marissa Revilla, GPJ Mexico

Ana Ramírez poses for a portrait at the Casa Venus hotel, where she worked as a receptionist until February.

Trans men have an 18.3% chance of experiencing violence in the workplace, according to figures published in 2023 by the Comisión Nacional de los Salarios Mínimos (CONASAMI), the federal agency that establishes the criteria for setting minimum wages. This figure rises to 36.9% for trans women. Both figures are higher than those for cisgender men and women (14.3% and 16.1%, respectively), as well as nonbinary people (16.6%).

The atmosphere of respect and validation within the team is perceptible to visitors. Alan Eduardo Pérez Martín, a tourist from Villahermosa, in the state of Tabasco, says he decided to stay at Casa Venus based on recommendations he read on social media.

“The people who work here are very inclusive, and that’s not common,” he says. “Witnessing people being able to show their personalities lends style and a pleasant feel to the hotel.”

A boost for inclusion in the workplace

Casa Venus’ fight against discrimination has garnered the attention of other merchants and activists in the area.

Maricarmen de la Encarnación Petate, an advocate for the rights of trans women in Chiapas, says the hotel is “a landmark in recognizing and respecting identity” in an area considered “cosmopolitan but very traditionalist, eminently Catholic.”

Marissa Revilla, GPJ Mexico

Tomás Chiu and Pen pose for a portrait on the Casa Venus roof.

According to CONASAMI, in 2021, trans women had an 18.8% chance of being denied employment. By contrast, the probability that those who were cisgender would be denied the opportunity to work was 5.1% for men and 4.3% for women. Eduardo Villatoro, president of Cámara Nacional de Comercio, Servicios y Turismo in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, a group that promotes the interests of local businesses, is thrilled that Casa Venus exists and hopes more employers will follow its example.

“The work the hotel is doing [spreads] dignity and contributes to the elimination of stereotypes, stigmas and taboos when it comes to this segment of the population,” Villatoro says referring to people in the LGBT community.

Pen, who says San Cristóbal de Las Casas is “an extremely transphobic place,” says he will continue working to combat workplace discrimination and offer dignified work to members of his community.

“Making the marginal ‘normal’ feels like a political act,” he says.