President Raul Castro's daughter Mariela led Saturday's procession of gays and their supporters, some of whom chanted "Homophobia no! Socialism yes!"
She's head of the National Sexual Education Center and a leading campaigner for gay rights in Cuba, where the government persecuted homosexuals especially in the 1960s [Debatable, try being gay in the capitalist paradise Haiti]. She says she's optimistic that the communist nation will eventually legalize gay marriage, but says "What is most complicated is the time it takes to overcome prejudices."
From Associated Press.
Picked up by many right wing media.
Socialism and gays - we say NO!
Bring your dad next time, Mariela.
Posts
How is it "debatable" that they persecuted gay people in the 1960s?
ReplyDeleteOr are you debating the inclusion of "especially" in that sentence?
I no understand Fagburn, Fagburn. :(
Cause they had national service, like we did, and they didn't let The Gays serve, like we did, so they put them in work camps, just like we did.
DeleteThanks for asking.
So the so-called communist dream was just as shit and persecutionatory as we were?
DeleteThanks. :(
Nope.
DeleteRead pages 222-226 of Fidel Castro: My Life and get back to me.
Thanks.
Your only source is Castro's autobiography???
DeleteOh, I'm ever so sorry.
DeleteWhat does The Man say?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOpozbYN8lY
DeleteYou do realise that is a work of fiction?
DeleteI don't know that it's a work of fiction.
DeleteI do know many have questioned it.
But so do many people question the questioners who question the questionable questionability of the question in question.
All I'm saying is, merely relying on one book - let alone the fact it's by Fidel bloody Castro - to make a definitive statement about the truth of the situation is ridiculous, and you know that.
x
I've read a lot of books about Cuba - mostly pants.
DeleteAre you relying on one by Reinaldo Arenas?
Remind me what happened to him in the wunnerful USA?
I'm not relying on the one written by Arenas.
DeleteI posted that video because it's a beautiful pome and beautifully read - it's not really about Cuba as such anyway, it's about writing.
I wasn't relying on Arenas because my point was that you can't rely on one source, can you? Especially not a book written by the man at the top of the fucking thing that's in question.
If you've read loads of books on Cuba and specifically what happened to "homosexual dissidents" there in the '60s, then provide those sources, no?
Neither of us knows for sure what was happening there for gay people at the time and to dismiss people like Arenas based on what, respectfully, seems like a biased reading list; is just bad journalism.
I realise I'm a dickhead who knows fuck all and you're a proper journalist of many years experience, not to mention what seem like impeccable scruples or standards or whatever the word is - a respect for proper journalism; and inspiringly so... but I don't know; if Arenas is right then that's horrific, isn't it?
He shouldn't be dismissed so contemptuously for later disagreeing with the regime and then writing against it in later years.
But who knows.
All I know is, we can't rely on Castro's biography for the truth, can we??
I mean, we can't, Fagburn - you KNOW that. :P
x
PS - he died of AIDS in the U.S., you mean?
Or rather, committed suicide while suffering from the effects?
Of capitalism?
DeleteJust about every collection of essays on gay politics published in the US in the 70s and 80s had a chapter on Cuba, and how terrible it was.
DeleteNo chapter on, say, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica etc.
Don't you think that's interesting?
I don't find it interesting until you provide the essays in question and the context at the time; ie. weren't there a lot of Cuban exiles in America, who no doubt had first-hand experiences of what was going on there?
DeleteThe absence of the rest, doesn't really prove anything, does it? You're assuming the reasons - and you may be right, but the only information you've provided so far, suggests nothing concrete.
This is why multiple sources is imperative - again, you know this.
And what do you mean by "Of capitalism"?
Are you suggesting he died of capitalism???
I can't believe you'd suggest he died of capitalism.
DeleteSeriously, I think that's the most repellent thing you've ever written on this blog.
I've read you in the past dismissing him as basically a traitor or scum for later disagreeing with the regime and then going on to criticise it.
But to suggest he died because of capitalism.
Jesus.
First book I pulled off the shelves was this...
Deletehttp://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Out_of_the_closets.html?id=390MT6rrl7cC&redir_esc=y
Out Of The Closets, published 1972, and generally seen as a seminal work in gay literature.
It has six (6!) articles about how horrid Cuba is, more than there about lesbians.
Do you think that suggests an obsession and it might show how even radicals subscribe to hegemonic values?
PS If he died in Cuba do you not think it would be blamed on "the hellish communist tyranny"?
"Do you think that suggests an obsession and it might show how even radicals subscribe to hegemonic values?
DeletePS If he died in Cuba do you not think it would be blamed on "the hellish communist tyranny"?"
What in the fuck are you talking about?
You pull one book off the shelf and based on the NUMBER OF ARTICLES you make an wild assumption about their "hegemonic values"???
And as for your PS - jesus christ.
What the fuck happened to your journalistic integrity, Richard???
I've come here for three years because I thought above all you valued journalistic standards.
This is bullshit.
If you're going to assert that the persecution of gay people in Cuba was nothing out of the ordinary compared to the west - and to even throw actual Cubans like Arenas under the bus to do so - why not write a proper fucking article with as much supporting evidence you know.
I mean, the gay people who were persecuted and no doubt tortured and murdered deserve at least that, don;t they?
Or does ideology trump all that???
Okay, tell me why an American book would devote 50 pages of a 400 page book to Cuba, and no other country?
DeleteWhat can you tell me about gay life in, say, Haiti?
You might find this essay interesting...
Deletehttp://www.spectrezine.org/global/chomsky.htm
Sorry, I'd taken too many "of these", last night.
DeleteGod knows why I typed all that shit.
I don't know what the truth is there, or was, obviously.
You're right about the amount of that book devoted to Cuba, of course.
I'll read the Chomsky essay later on. Thanks.
xx
You never did get back to that commenter on Queerty that asked you, as chief mourner/apologist/fangurrl to account for the homophobia in Chavez's circle...oh right, you explained you hadn't read about it...Mmmkay...funny that.
ReplyDeleteYou're an embarrassment. I despise your blind donkey-like obedience to these regimes every bit as much as I hate those slimy excretions from Ayn Rand's festering cunt. You'd all sell us out in the name of ideology. Bastards.
Oh, you're an idiot alright; just not a useful one.
Do you mean this made-up homophobia?
Deletehttp://www.fagburn.com/2012/03/hugo-chavez-independent-retracts-anti.html