on the question of "gay rights" in Cuba

[davidmci@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (David McInerney)]

Mon, 29 Jan 1996, Kevin wrote:

>On Mon, 29 Jan 1996 g.maclennan@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>> > 3) Cuba's democracy: Is Castro a Stalinist? Is Sam Farber correct that
>> > the Cuban workers have been held back by Castro? Human rights? Gay rights?
>
>        I know a good deal about the human rights violations with
>political dissenters, but what about gay rights in Cuba? I had never heard
>about signifigant problems from Castro on that issue..

A friend of mine is a Cuba specialist and has visited the place seven
(possibly eight by now) times.  There is a film on gays in Cuba called
_Strawberries and Chocolate_ which she thought was pretty accurate.  She
says that Cuba has basically retrained the machismo of Latin American
culture more generally and this has resulted in an oppressive atmosphere
for gays (although no more so than in other Latin American states).

Another friend of mine (a gay man) from the Republic of Macedonia has told
me of some personal experiences at the hands of Yugoslav police (in
Macedonia and Slovenia) which are very scary.  He is there at the moment
and from his letters it seems that things have not changed much since the
disintegration of the Yugoslav state.

It seems that homophobic attitudes prevalent in socialist states prior to
their revolutions (and here I am not buying into questions of "real
socialism" etc, I am just talking about state which some on the list --
Louis for Cuba and Berkley for Yugoslavia -- have been prepared to commend
in other respects) were retained at the level of "culture" (ideology?)
within both the repressive and ideological apparatuses.  As far as "rights"
go, I'm not sure about this, but I can tell you that Australian aborigines
have rights too, but these haven't made much difference in terms of how
they are treated by the pigs and screws (whoops, police and wardens!).
Same goes for gays in many cases.


Mr. David McInerney,
Political Science Program, Research School of Social Sciences,
The Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T., AUSTRALIA  0200.
e-mail: davidmci@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; ph: (06) 249 2134; fax: (06) 249 3051




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