Historically, Catholicism has determined the morality of life. Just last year, in a reflection on marriage, Pope Francis assured that a family is founded on the conjugal union between a man and a woman. Religion decides the steps to follow to reach heaven. Meanwhile, on Earth, minorities look for non-existent references. The LGTBIQ+ community does not find itself in the Bible, on television or in real estate advertisements.
Érica Salinas Castillo (La Paz, Baja California Sur, 41 years old) went to Hermosillo, Sonora, very young, far from her family. She felt different and she decided that she wanted to “get well” so she could return to her parents. So, she sought out the Catholic Church and joined a religious group, where she fell in love with a girl. Because she is a lesbian, Erica was a victim for four years of the Efforts to Correct Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (Ecosig), which in Mexico are about to be criminalized.
“When I go and confess to my father that I was in love with a woman, he starts to tell me that that was a sin and that we had to do everything possible to stop him from having those thoughts,” says Erica in a video call with EL PAÍS. “That's when she starts with these penances that increase. First, a certain number of prayers, then the Stations of the Cross, then climbing the Virgin's hill. There came a time when she made me tie a rope around my abdomen, and every time I had a sinful thought, I had to pull that rope,” she remembers.
Being different from “the norm” seems to be penalized by the Church, but also by society. According to figures from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), in Mexico five million people recognize themselves as LGTBIQ+, but 32.1% of them were discriminated against in 2022. That same year, 87 people were murdered in the country for related reasons. with their sexual orientation or gender identity, the report revealed The traces of violence due to prejudice against LGBTI+ people in Mexico, of the Letter S organization.
Because of this, Erica was convinced for years that she wanted to change. She thought something was wrong with her. However, she never left the “sinful thoughts” and she started a relationship with another girl, but her guilt did not leave her and in 2008 she spoke to the priest. “I was very desperate and I told the priest that I wanted the therapy to work and he told me: 'well this is not working, we are going to have to resort to the doctors.' electroshocks, with that those sinful thoughts will be taken away from you.' He gives me a card from the psychiatrist (for electroshocks) and on the back he writes down the number of the gynecologist and tells me: 'You go to her, she is a gynecologist who is going to give you hormones so that you can recover your lost femininity and with that you will be cured. ”.
For her, this was an awakening. “When he says the word 'heal', it's what resonates in my head and makes me honestly come to my senses. I told myself: well, I'm not sick, I'm in love,” says Erica. She ran away from the church and had her first panic attack. “I never returned to that church again and a process of separation and resignation began that I would never be able to earn heaven.”
Electroshocks have historically been used to treat severe depression and suicidal ideation. “Electroconvulsive therapy is a safe and effective treatment for resistant depression and other specific conditions,” says Deni Álvarez Icaza, psychiatrist at the ABC Medical Center, who assures that its use has tried to be distorted. “Unfortunately, its use has been repeatedly stigmatized in the media. It should be applied with the patient sedated and following clinical guidelines. There is no indication or justification for this or other types of medical treatments to be used unethically in so-called conversion therapies,” she explains.
Although she did not undergo electroshocks, Erica suffered other types of torture in the church and to heal the pain that this stage of her life caused her, she directed a short film called To: Sarah, where he told his story in fictional form to raise awareness about the torture that continues to happen in the country. He projects it in universities and has met people who suffered the same thing.
Ecosig are about to be banned in Mexico. On March 22, the Chamber of Deputies approved the ruling to classify these practices as a crime, which will lead to a punishment of two or six years in prison for “anyone who performs, imparts, applies, forces or finances any type of treatment, therapy, service or practice that hinders, restricts, prevents, impairs, nullifies or suppresses a person's sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.
In 2020, laws began to be approved to penalize Ecosig in 18 entities. In 12 other States they had already presented themselves in commissions and the remaining two refused to address the issue. It is expected that this month it will already be penalized throughout the country, but there is one step left. “Right now the law is returned to the Senate. We hope that at the beginning of April it can be discussed and approved,” said Iván Tagle, general director of Yaaj México, an organization of activists dedicated to protecting and promoting the rights of LGTBIQ+ people, at a press conference. “Something very important is that although 18 of the 32 states in the country have already approved this, none have proposed a public policy to prevent crime and guarantee non-repetition. “A bill that is not backed by public policy to build this is basically toothless.”
Yaaj Mexico has linked relationships between personalities from politics and communication, such as the representative Salma Luévano, the communicator Mónica Garza and the political scientist Genaro Lozano to promote this ruling. Tagle is aware of the challenge of implementing the law. “This initiative encounters various challenges that need to be attacked with the coordinated work of local governments, victim care commissions, search commissions, and prosecutors' offices. We have to do a titanic job, there are many people in the area of law enforcement who do not even know what a bisexual person is. How are we going to ask them to create a new crime, when their entire training says that all gay Are they sick?”
“Nothing to cure” is the slogan used by activists in the campaign to ban Ecosig. For Erica Salinas, doing activism was a way to heal the wounds of her past. She founded the organization Sociedad Activa that develops educational and artistic projects focused on social problems. In 2012, her team joined as associate producers on the documentary ABC Never Again, directed by Pedro Ultreras. In 2022, together with other groups, they managed to get the local congress of Sonora to penalize Ecosig in that State.
Although Erica has received threats after screening her short film, she is sure that she will not stop supporting the victims. “I can no longer change my past. “I am what I am despite that past, but at least if I have the strength, the ability and the sufficient support network, I will fight everything I have to fight so that it doesn't happen to anyone else again,” she says. while his voice breaks. “I would have preferred a million times if it hadn't happened to me. I would have preferred not to have lost my youth. It is a daily struggle and even almost minute by minute to not let that programming that they gave us for so many years win.”
Despite her experience, Er
ica was able to make peace with religion. She has been invited to various forums of LGTBIQ + religions and in October of last year she was invited to a meeting of Catholics of diversity in Colombia. “I discovered that what happened to me was very independent of my spirituality. “I consider myself a very spiritual person,” she acknowledges. At the end of last year, the Vatican approved blessing homosexual couples, an advance that will allow people who do not adhere to the regulations to approach the Church.
The initiative is expected to reach the Senate on April 12 to be discussed and approved. Once it is published in the Official Gazette of the Federation, Ecosig will be a crime. The next thing will be for victims to feel safe to report, to have protocols adapted to the LGTBIQ+ community and for impunity not to take its toll.
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