When Colombia’s FARC guerrillas turned up at the home of Cristian Camilo Gonzalez nearly two decades ago and shoved him into a truck when he was just aged 14, his happy childhood ended abruptly. For Gonzalez, having escaped from the FARC was a chance to come out of the closet without fear of being killed. Surviving as a street vendor and sex worker in various cities across Colombia, Gonzalez had relationships with men, and then gradually transitioned from a man to a woman. Gonzalez changed his name to Darla Cristina. She started to wear women’s clothes and make-up, and then got buttock and breast implants. Gonzalez says she knows of only three other former FARC rebels who have become transgender women.