Cuban Government Backs Calls to Combat Homophobia
HAVANA - Cuba’s gay community celebrated unprecedented openness - and high-ranking political alliances - with a government-backed campaign against homophobia on Saturday.
The meeting at a convention center in Havana’s Vedado district may have been the largest gathering of openly gay activists ever on the communist-run island. President Raul Castro’s daughter Mariela, who has promoted the rights of sexual minorities, presided.”This is a very important moment for us, the men and women of Cuba, because for the first time we can gather in this way and speak profoundly and with scientific basis about these topics,” said Castro, director of Cuba’s Center for Sexual Education.
Mariela Castro joined government leaders and hundreds of activists at the one-day conference for the International Day Against Homophobia that featured shows, lectures, panel discussions and book presentations. A station also offered blood-tests for sexually transmitted diseases.
Cuban state television gave prime-time play Friday to the U.S. film “Brokeback Mountain,” which tells the story of two cowboys who conceal their homosexual affair.
Prejudice against homosexuals remains deeply rooted in Cuban society, but the government has steadily moved away from the Puritanism of the 1960s and 1970s, when homosexuals hid their sexuality for fear of being ridiculed, fired from work or even imprisoned.
Now Cuba’s parliament is studying proposals to legalize same-sex unions and give gay couples the benefits that people in traditional marriages enjoy.
Parliament head Ricardo Alarcon said the government needs to do more to promote gay rights, but said many Cubans still need to be convinced.
Things “are advancing, but must continue advancing, and I think we should do that in a coherent, appropriate and precise way because these are topics that have been taboo and continue to be for many,” Alarcon told reporters.
Some at the conference spoke of streaming out into the streets for a spontaneous gay-pride parade, but others urged caution.
The gay rights movement should be careful not to “flood” Cuban society with a message that many are not ready to hear, physician and gay activist Alberto Roque cautioned.
And Mariela Castro said gay activists should opt for more subtle ways to chip away at deep-seated homophobic attitudes.
Defending equal rights for Cubans, of all sexual orientations, is a key principal of the Cuban revolution led by her uncle Fidel Castro, who overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, she said.
“The freedom of sexual choice and gender identity (are) exercises in equality and social justice,” she said.
© 2008 Associated Press
Another dreadful use of “liberal” issues to impugn the reputation of a leftist regime. Just hop across to Jamaica to see where gay rights really stand or Africa or South Asia where the penalties still include jail time.
It’s pretty obvious that this singling out of Cuba for its conservative culture fits into this propaganda campaign against the island, when countless other countries get a free pass or find little mention in the press. The fact that Cuba is changing, with the leadership at the forefront should be celebrated and encouraged, not used for further “liberal” claptrap.
Cuba also gave health care to all her people, and now a right attitude to homosexuals.
It would be a blessed relief to all this continual hatred, and cowboy mentality we have been under the past 7 + years.
Why in the world can’t we just live and let live?
Hmmm, the 2nd mention of Gay marriage since California. Maybe tolerance is in the wind! and AMEN to that!
Namaste
This is a good thing. Cuba is a progressive society and this is what “progress” means.
Two points to consider: one, the Cuban revolution doesn’t exist in a vacuum and couldn’t; and, two, Latin America is historically, ethnically and culturally diverse. The second point is relevant because Cuban homophobia has deep cultural and historical roots going back long before the revolution while other parts of the continent, specifically Mesoamerica and the Andes, have always been relatively more accepting of homosexuality. The first point is relevant because the Cuban revolution occurred before there was a gay movement of any strength in the U.S. or in Europe or in Latin America so at the outset there was no effective criticism of Cuban homophobia from outside the country. Subsequent Latin American leftist movements, beginning with the Sandinistas, have incorporated gay liberation to progressively greater degrees as the years have gone by; proposed new constitutions in Venezuela and Bolivia, for example, have prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, as does the South African constitution. The Latin American left has evolved and the Cuban government, part of the Latin American left, has evolved with it.
I like what I read. Viva Cuba!
I agree , Viva Cuba and may we keep American “influence” away from them.
It’s about time…hopefully Cuba will keep moving in a progressive direction and that other states and countries will follow suit, granting equal rights and protections to all members of their societies.
Dear Angel2Shine,
The US campaign against Cuba didn’t begin with GWB–it began with the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and has been a constant since then–Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, and whoever comes next. The US big business press is part of this–that’s why this story will not get reported in the US media.