The author traveled to Cuba in 1990 with the Venceremos Brigade and formed part of the Lesbian and Gay Caucus of the brigade. The Cuban government facilitated meetings between the caucus and groups of LGBT Cubans, doctors and sanatorium patients. The sanatoriums treated people with HIV/AIDS during the early part of the AIDS crisis in Cuba.
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This is the second celebration on this day in Cuba. The campaign is part of an International Day Against Homophobia that marks the date in 1990 when the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality as a mental disorder. This is the second such commemoration in Cuba, with events taking place in seven of Cuba’s 14 provinces.
“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 Mariela Castro Espín, the head of CENESEX. Castro is the daughter of President Raúl Castro and Vilma Espín, former head of the Cuban Women’s Federation, who died last year.
The day was celebrated with state-supported public discussions, panels, art exhibits, theater works, and book readings involving many government officials and institutions. Free Sexually Transmitted Disease screenings were also promoted during the day’s events.
On May 16, the U.S.-made film “Brokeback Mountain” played on prime-time Cuban television. The movie tells the story of two cowboys who face a series of hardships after they fall in love. One of the men is murdered in an anti-gay attack.
In press from around the world, the leadership of the Cuban government has been noted as exemplary.
National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón emphasized the important role of the government in promoting LGBT rights. At the day’s events in Havana’s Vedado neighborhood, Alarcón explained, “[T]o persuade, to understand sexual diversity, and to eradicate homophobia as one of the most entrenched forms of discrimination in today’s society is to be in solidarity, and solidarity is part of Socialism.”
The debate is not only taking place at these events, but the Cuban National Assembly is discussing legislation to recognize same-sex unions in June. The changes would be added to the Cuban Family Code, which is a set of rights guaranteed by the revolution. The Family Code is unique in the world as it includes a year of maternity leave at full pay and requires that men share in equal partnership with their spouses in housework among other rights.
The Cuban movement for full rights for LGBT people has not sidestepped the issues facing transgender people. There are also discussions taking place in the National Assembly to make gender reassignment surgery accessible in Cuba’s free and universal healthcare system. Cuba first began performing gender-reassignment surgery in 1988, but soon realized that more public education was needed before proceeding with the measure.
Castro Espín announced that Cuba was assembling a team of Belgian surgeons to resume surgical gender reassignment.
The process of challenging homophobic attitudes inherited from capitalism and slavery is not new in Socialist Cuba. In 1993 the Cuban Institute of Art and Cinemagraphic Industry produced a feature film entitled Strawberry and Chocolate with the serious and sensitive treatment of a gay character and his friendship with a member of the Cuban Communist Party. The film promotes the message that the revolution must take up incorporating LGBT people.
This landmark movie created much discussion about LGBT life in Cuba during one of the most difficult economic periods in Cuba, called the “Special Period.” After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist Eastern European countries in 1992, Cuba lost over 80 percent of economic trade.
This contrasts starkly with the U.S. where oppressed groups are often targeted and scapegoated more during economic downturns.
Socialism removes the economic basis of LGBT oppression, while capitalism needs to promote bigotry and division to maintain the system of exploitation. However, backwards ideas—the vestiges of class society—don’t go away overnight and need to be challenged to establish new social norms of equality and to build an environment where gender and sexuality can truly be liberated. This is precisely the goal of the ongoing campaign.
“The freedom of sexual choice and gender identity [are] exercises in equality and social justice,” said Castro Espín. The defense of equal rights for Cubans of all sexual orientations is a key principle of the Cuban revolution.
