Cuba: La Revolucion Continua!

Cuban gay rights activists led by the daughter of President Raul Castro plan a mass symbolic wedding on Saturday to promote acceptance of gay and transgender Cubans in a country once notoriously hostile toward them.

The ceremony will be part of an annual gay pride parade and will be symbolic because same-sex marriage is illegal in Cuba, Mariela Castro told reporters. She said it would also be low key because Cuban society is still uneasy about full rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

"We can't do a wedding, but we wanted to have a very modest celebration of love with some religious leaders," said Castro, head of the National Sex Education Center and a member of Cuba's National Assembly. "In the future we'll see what more we can do." ...

Cuban gays have made great strides in recent years, largely because of Mariela Castro's political standing, but same-sex marriage and civil unions remain illegal.

Some public attitudes changed when retired leader Fidel Castro admitted in 2010 that he had been wrong to discriminate against gays, who were sent to labor camps in the early years after the 1959 revolution. [Mainly as an alternative to military conscription, they were hardly gulags. Gay men were still being imprisoned in the freedom-loving US and UK then, of course].

Cuba's National Assembly last year approved a labor law that banned discrimination based on sexual orientation. But Mariela Castro voted against the law in an extremely rare and possibly unprecedented dissenting vote because the law did not also ban discrimination based on gender identity.

Cuba's one-party political system traditionally operates on consensus, which Castro said was one reason lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Cubans still lack full legal rights.

"There is a fear that this will tear Cuban society apart," Castro said. But, she said she believed it would not create a rupture. "It will create cultural and ideological enrichment."

Reuters.

The situation of gay men in Cuba was mainly 'notorious' in the West because the US gay and straight media were obsessed with it in the 70s and 80s, when Cuba was Uncle Sam's Public Enemy Number One.

You be hard pressed to find a single one about gay life in the capitalist paradises next door, Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Just as a supine media were obsessed with the plight of Iranian gay men a decade ago, and with Russia's in recent years.

You may sense a pattern here... Pinkwashing in reverse.

Cuba: Mas Libre

Yet another revolutionary tradition has been broken in Cuba - a lawmaker voted 'no' in parliament. And it wasn't just any lawmaker.

Mariela Castro, the daughter of President Raul Castro and niece of Fidel Castro, gave the thumbs-down to a workers' rights bill that she felt didn't go far enough to prevent discrimination against people with HIV or with unconventional gender identities.

While it is the first time in living memory that anybody can remember a lawmaker voting against a bill, critics say the vote has more to do with Castro's unassailable position, rather than a changing attitude towards democracy on the island...

Daily Mail.

Fagburn is astounded how many British journalists are experts on the Cuban parliamentary system and its history. 

This is a much-regurgitated Associated Press story all quoting the same American 'experts', about a bill outlawing workplace discrimination based on gender, race, and sexual orientation.

Which went further than any similar US legislation, incidentally.

As this was such big news here I asked Cenesex - Cuba's National Centre for Sexual Education - for a statement.

They said they were a bit confused as the vote took place in December - it's also not exceptional.

But you can't trust these people, they are GODLESS COMMUNISTS!

Anyway here's Mariela Castro's latest statement...

The recent publication in the Official Gazette, Act 116 of the Labour Code, has raised strong criticism associated with the no inclusion of gender identity as one of the reasons against discrimination. These critics, as it was stated in the First Conference of the Communist Party of Cuba, highlight a growing sensitivity in Cuban society regarding the related-issues with the rights and the fight against any kind of discrimination, including gender identity. This situation requires the full attention of our society, and warns about the need to strength the work of the citizens and their representatives to achieve these goals.

From my point of view, it means that this is part of the creative tensions of any revolutionary process. Revolutionizing is not to face the newness by a hit; it is to analyze contradictions, overcome hegemonic social imaginaries that have stigmatized for centuries many people suffering the consequences from social exclusion, it is to work for social structures, including concrete actions, to realize the political will expressed in the Cuban Communist Party documents, and it is working to review the mechanisms on which we build ourselves as historical subjects, from where we produce and reproduce what emancipates and alienates us. Revolutionizing is a brave and generous act that allows us to recognize the contradictions to strengthen our critical awareness in favor of revolutionary social transformation.

I still keep in mind that discrimination based on gender identity remains pending in our legislation, so I applaud the revolutionary critical journalism that has been doing its best contributions. The permanent and committed self-criticism must lead us to keep fighting for what we believe is just enough and necessary for building an emancipated society.

As a committed citizen with this historical project and from my professional and institutional responsibility, I take charge of transmitting more and more clearly the reflections that help our people to discuss about these issues, to keep moving forward in our hopes to conquer all justice.

Oh, and here's an interview with her after last year's vote.

PS The centre photo comes from a series Queerty published Monday, The Secret Homoerotic Lives Of Cuban Men.

Though as all the men were quite happy to have their photos taken and published, Fagburn isn't sure how they can be said to be living 'secret' lives, but that's Americans' rather odd worldview for you.

The photographer, Kobi Israel's last book was a collection of photos of 'hot' members of the Israeli Defence Force, make of that and this what you will.

And finally... a belated happy 88th birthday to Fidel Castro last Wednesday. x

Cuba: An Affront To LGBT Freedom Of Speech

Equality Forum, a national and international LGBT civil rights organization, calls on the U.S. State Department to allow Mariela Castro, a Cuban LGBT civil rights activist, to visit Philadelphia for Equality Forum 2013.  The State Department issued a visa to Ms. Castro to visit New York for U.N. meetings, but did not authorize Ms. Castro to travel to Philadelphia to participate in Equality Forum 2013 with Cuba as the Featured Nation.
“Over the past 11 years, Equality Forum has invited leaders of the featured nation to attend. For those who needed a visa, all past visas have been approved,” stated Malcolm Lazin, Executive Director, Equality Forum.  “It is shocking that our State Department would deny Ms. Castro travel to a civil rights summit – especially one held in the birthplace of our democracy that enshrines freedoms of speech and assembly.”
The daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro, Mariela is married and the mother of three children. She is the head of CENESEX, a Havana-based organization which campaigns for effective AIDS prevention as well as recognition and acceptance of LGBT human rights.  She has published 13 scholarly articles and nine books.  She is a vocal leader in fighting homophobia in Cuba and advocating for same-sex marriage...

From a statement issued by Equality Forum. 

O America - land of the free!
Once more the US State Department causes irony to die laughing.
This is so daft, even by their usual standards, I wouldn't be surprised if the ban is quietly overturned.

PS Here's something I wrote on how some American gay media covered Mariela Castro's visit to the US last year - with reports, but of course, centred around the "outrage" of right-wing Cuban-American loopy groups.
Dare I check today's coverage?

Update: Yup, the decision was overturned April 30th. 

Mariela Castro: Freedom

 

"If we don't change our patriarchal and homophobic culture, we cannot advance as a new society, and that's what we want, the power of emancipation through socialism. We will establish relationships on the basis of social justice and social equality. It seems like a Utopia, but we can change it." 

Mariela Castro, Cuba's leading LGBT rights advocate and the director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX), is currently in the US speaking in San Francisco and New York, and meeting health workers and gay campaigners. 
It's quite a big deal, I guess. 
It was touch-and-go whether the land of the free would allow her in.
Interesting to note that for some American gay journalists the only story here is the predictable howls of outrage made by right-wing Cuban-Americans. 

Cuban-Americans Outraged by Mariela Castro Visit 
'Cuban-Americans are outraged that the niece of Fidel Castro is visiting the United States to talk about LGBT equality, given the history of repression in Cuba.'
The Advocate. 

Not All Gay Activists Cheering Mariela Castro's U.S. Visit
'Miami resident Pedro S. Romanach also voiced opposition*, saying that despite Castro's efforts, there are still fundamental rights that Cubans, gay and straight alike, lack: "She may be pro-gay marriage, but the very elementary rights Cubans don’t have — freedom of the press, freedom of assembly — gay people don’t have those rights in Cuba. Neither do straights."
'He went on, "She doesn’t represent anybody but herself. The real heroes in Cuba are the gay people who are pro-gay and pro-freedom and the anti-communists who aren’t getting any publicity."
Towleroad.

Snore!
Little parlour game: How many articles have you seen in the gay press about gay life in Cuba's neighbours - and presumably gay-loving capitalist paradises - Haiti or the Dominican Republic?
Like ever?
If the answer's none, then can all the negative coverage of Cuba be seen as anything other than crude propaganda against an Officially Declared Enemy of the USA?
It is surely beyond stupid for gay journalists to complain about the lack of freedom of speech in Cuba if every word they write just shows the lack of freedom of thought in their own.

• Two interviews with Mariela Castro from L'Humanité and from Der Spiegel.

* Wonder if it's the same Pedro who left this charming comment on Queerty; "This bitch needs to be taken down. Why is she even allowed on American soil? They all have blood on their hands!!"

Mariela Castro: Cuban Family Values

Here's an interview with Mariela Castrofrom Der Spiegel today - she's the head of CENESEX, The National Centre for Sexual Education, Cuba's main organisation working for gay rights.
There's a video of her talking about CENESEX's work here.
I think she's great.
She's also the niece of Fidel Castro - and the daughter of Raúl Castro, the president of Cuba.
Apropos of nothing, Raul's nickname is "La China" - The Chinese Woman, though I don't think anyone says this to his face.
It's often been rumoured Raul's gay.
One of the reasons Allen Ginsberg got asked to leave Cuba in 1965 was he repeated the rumour about Raúl, and told an interviewer he wanted to shag Che Guevara.
Homosexuality was illegal in Cuba until 1979 - this fact is often cited as proof of the communist state's backwardness and barbarity.
Cuba - boo!
But among its neighbours in the Caribbean, homosexuality was illegal in Haiti until 1986, in the Bahamas until 1991, and in Puerto Rico until 2002.
And it's still illegal in Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago
Mind you, gay sex was illegal in Scotland until 1980, in Northern Ireland until 1982, and in Guernsey, Alderney, Herm and Sark until 1983.
Jersey took until 1990, and The Isle of Man until 1992.
In the Republic of Ireland homosexuality wasn't legalised in 1993.
And the US laws against gay sex were only struck down by the Supreme Court in 2003.
It's a funny old world, isn't it?