“It was me who was thrown out of the place along with my companion because ‘it’s wrong’ for two men to kiss, because, although it’s not illegal, these people of the nightclub shielded their homophobia alleging the ‘right of admission’.”

“The man told us that if we brought a girl he could rent us only one room, otherwise we had to rent two separately. We got really upset and left there.”

“When she arrived, she greeted me with a kiss on the cheek and hugged me. A military man who was at the fair, I think high-ranking, saw us and immediately grabbed her phone to make a call.”

“Between 2010 and 2014 I studied communications at the Monteavila University (a private institution in Caracas founded by members of Opus Dei), where I was taught homosexuality in anthropology classes as a mental illness…”

“They took me to a nearby door that seemed to lead to a warehouse, and they told me they had to do a ‘body search.’”

“The thing that has always kept me strong in every decision I’ve made in my life is pursuing my own happiness, understanding that I don’t need to deny what I am or try to maintain an appearance of what I’m not before anyone and by no means in front of my parents.”

“They [her parents] took me to psychologists, psychiatrists and even a priest, searching for someone who could ‘change’ me. …they saw me like a confused and rebel little girl.”

“When I was 13 years old the entire school find out I am lesbian. It was a very distressing feeling and made me feel isolated and abnormal. But the students and teachers did know how to call me: ‘la cachapera’ (it’s an offensive way to say “dyke” in Venezuela). …but whatever you do, don’t give up: mostly, at some point and in some way, things get better, even if it’s just a little.”