by RACHEL EVANS
March to celebrate LGBTI rights in Havana, May 2009.
December 23, 2011 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — When I was 16, I went to a Cuba solidarity event in my home town. At the end of inspiring speeches about Cuba’s health record, education standards, and the revolution’s policy of sending doctors and teachers to impoverished countries, a rousing “Cuba si! Yankee no!” chant erupted. It was electric. Much better than the fake feeling, singing and dancing we’d experienced in the church hall on Sunday. I was impressed and resolved to visit the country and see the revolution for myself. Years later and having come out of the closet, I decided my trip to Cuba could help prove or dispel the oft-uttered line of Cuba being homophobic.
This work will help put to bed the lies and distortions propagated by the powerful United States (US) propaganda machine: that the Cuban Revolution is undemocratic, homophobic and tyrannical. My visit to and study of Cuba finds that there is no basis to these claims.
Introduction
The revolution in Cuba bought hope for people suffering from a legacy of colonial and imperialist domination. A wave of people’s power against the dictator, Fulgencio Batista, culminated in a general strike on January 1, 1959. A new chapter in dignity opened up for the small Caribbean island. Landless peasants were granted soil to till and city dwelling toilers granted homes, almost rent free. Copper mines, agricultural, telecommunication and electricity firms run by foreign companies were nationalised by the new Cuban government. With resources returned to the country, wages increased for many workers and health care and education were provided free. The revolution lifted the mass of Cubans out of poverty and gave them a political voice. Decisions previously made in homes and parlours of the rich were now made in mass assemblies of workers and peasants in city plazas.
After the revolution, women and Afro-Cubans were granted equality in law and measures to advance their status were implemented by the new state. Lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people did not fare so well in this anti-imperialist renaissance. While the uprising benefited the vast majority of Cubans, some early revolutionary government policies reflected the weight of Spanish and US colonial baggage, and discriminated against LGBTI people. These practices and laws began to be removed from the 1970s onwards. Today, Cuba is more advanced in LGBTI rights than many global South nations and, I content, than many global North countries. In a comparative study in this dissertation – Australia and the US fall behind Cuba’s LGBTI record on many fronts.
Cuba’s revolution took place 145 kilometres off the US coast of Miami. The nationalisation by Cuba of industrial and agrarian enterprises owned by US citizens drew the ire of the world’s most powerful and militarised nation. The US government attacked the revolution militarily, economically and through a disinformation campaign. Claims that the Cuban government is undemocratic, repressive and homophobic continue to be propagated by opponents of the socialist government.
This essay will examine claims that the Cuban Revolution was extremely homophobic and remains so. It will do so first by exploring the history of Cuban LGBTI life. It will examine the conditions for the community before the revolution – during the Spanish colonial occupation of Cuba – and the subsequent US ‘sexploitation’ from the early 1900s. Secondly, the research will assess the nature of the Cuban Revolution and the homophobic pressures on it from the US and the United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). Three specific phases of Cuban government policy identified as homophobic will be examined. These are the incarceration of homosexuals in “military units to aid production” (UMAPs) between 1965 and 1968, the alleged mass exodus of homosexuals from Cuba in the 1981 Mariel boatlift and the alleged targeting of homosexuals for involuntary treatment for HIV care in health sanatoriums. A study of Cuba’s homophobic laws will also feature.
Finally, this essay will explore the way in which changes in Cuba have led to its very good international position in terms of transgender rights, same-sex sex education, HIV treatment, cultural LGBTI expression and formal legal equality. This study finds that, while institutional homophobia (repressive laws) have been removed, prejudice has not disappeared. As a leading Cuban sexual rights organization, the Centre for Sexual Education (CENESEX), says, work remains to be done to eliminate homophobic and transphobic ideas and barriers for the LGBTI community in Cuba.
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