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Homophobia: Cuba Discusses Errors of the Past
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
[For more on Cuba's progressive changes in terms of ***uality, see
the late Jon Hillson's essay "The ***ual Politics of Reinaldo Arenas:
Fact, Fiction and the Real Record of the Cuban Revolution." It's here,
in English and Spanish: http://www.blythe.org/arenas.html
]
La Jornada via Z Magazine - Dec 15, 2007
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=91&ItemID=14507
Cuba Regrets ~Past Error of Homophobia
by Gerardo Arreola
originally published in La Jornada, Dec 10, 2007
Slightly abridged and translated by Supriyo Chatterjee
http://nuestrosricos.blogspot.com/
Cuba considers the official homophobia of the past decades "an error"
but this period still needs discussing: "what happened has to be
analysed," says ***ologist Mariela Castro Espn. The director of the
National Centre of *** Education (Cene***) announced at the beginning of
last year a legal initiative to recognise the rights of the
trans***uals to identity and to clinical attention, a proposal that has
been reformulated through discussion. The project, which still awaits
legislative passage, has incor****ated among other points the rights of
freedom in ***ual orientation... and of [child] adoption for same-***
couples, comparable to hetero***ual unions. Mariela is the daughter of
the stand-in President, Ral Castro, and Vilma Espn, the late defender
of gender rights.
A controversy broke out last January about the "quinquenio
gris" (refers to a gray period, variously interpreted as being of five
to fifteen years), as the censor****p and homophobic discrimination of
the Seventies is remembered. Mariela, who participated in the debate,
was asked if the discussion would have to extend to other aspects of
the past like penalisation of "ostentatious" homo***uality or the
agricultural camps where people of that orientation were interned.
She points out that "in the history of a human being, errors are made
and one has to go on learning and taking lessons from those mistakes.
But institutions also commit errors and have to be capable of
recognising why it was a mistake and what it is going to do so that the
mistakes are not repeated, what laws have to be established, which
values have to be instituted."
The errors which Cuba committed were very similar to those that were
and still are committed in many countries. Cuba was a reflection of the
world. The same happened here that happened in other places, only that
much more got out because it was expected that a Socialist revolution
could not commit those errors because it was a revolution for the
emancipation of [humanity]. The ideology at that time was permeated with
homophobia and prejudices. The Communist parties were very homophobic.
It is recently that they have more inclusive attitudes.
Reviewing the achievements and obstacles in overcoming the decades of
discrimination, Mariela considers that the Cuban media still timidly
approaches ***ual diversity. They are losing the fear" -- last year a
telenovela which tackled male bi***uality caused an intense social
controversy; the newspaper Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth) has a section
on ***; television approaches the theme in comedy programmes and a
short drama was broadcast about a lesbian couple.
But prejudice is still deep-rooted in society and in the government:
"There still are institutions that take the right to decide if a
lesbian, gay or trans***ual person can or not occupy a post." In the
educational sector "we have achieved very little;" schools turn down
trans***uals who wish to dress according to their real ***... they are
vulnerable to mockery and rejection and abandon [their] studies. Cene***
speaks with the police about how to behave in public spaces with
homo***uals or trans***uals: "there are people very grateful for that
conversation, though others are not so receptive."
A group of trans***uals work at the centre getting ready to become
health promoters "so that society sees them that way and not as a
curse; there is another group of lesbians, and in both cases they
discuss common problems," at times with the participation of families.
Hoping that the initiatives will [achieve] legislative passage, at a
still-to-be-determined date, Cene*** works to "educate the public that
deserves to be informed before a thing like this [comes at them from
out of the blue]. Because if not, the people will feel upset and
broken."
*
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