[Marxism] San Francisco Queer Group Headed For Cuba 07.28.07

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(This posting is dedicated to John O'Brien.)
===================================================
GAYWIRED
San Francisco Queer Group Headed For Cuba 
07.28.07

http://www.gaywired.com/article.cfm?section=66&id=15732

On December 27, 2007, a group of North Americans will make history by
flying to Havana on the first ever Queers to Cuba Tour. They'll spend
eight days experiencing the island's rich cultural heritage and
meeting representatives of Cuban organizations working for sexual
dignity. Activists from CENESEX (the National Center for Sexual
Education), the Cuban organization advancing queer reforms and AIDS
awareness, will brief tour members on the island scene.

The tour is being conducted by Sonja de Vries,/b>, co-founder of San
Francisco-based Queers for Cuba, the first LGBT (lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender) group to be officially invited to Cuba. Ms. de
Vries studied race and gay issues in Havana from 1993 to 1994, and
her groundbreaking documentary "Gay Cuba" remains the last word on
the subject.

"The Queers to Cuba Tour comes at an exciting time for LGBT equality
in Cuba," says Sonja de Vries. "The Cubans are drafting legislation
to allow same sex unions, lesbian adoption and insemination, and
transgender reassignment surgery. These changes are being broadly
debated by the population, yet North Americans hear very little about
this kind of popular democracy."

The tour is being organized by Cuba Education Tours of Vancouver,
Canada, whose coordinator, Marcel Hatch, insists, "The image of Cuba
as a gulag for LGBT people is false. It's a myth invented by
opponents of revolutionary Cuba. As a gay, I feel safer in Cuba than
in Canada or the States. Soon island queers will enjoy greater rights
and freedoms than their counterparts in the USA."

Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, has said, 
"We have to abolish any form of discrimination against those persons. 
We have to redefine the concept of marriage. Socialism should be a
society that does not exclude anybody."

Sonja de Vries recalls, "When I visited Cuba last December with a
group, we met with CENESEX president Mariela Castro Espin and she
told us about the concrete work being done with transgender people,
with lesbians, and with families to encourage support of their LGBT
kids. Several members of my group were in tears. To see these efforts
being carried out in a way that is so respectful and compassionate is
not something most of us have experienced with institutions, much
less government!"

C 2007. GayWired.com; All Rights Reserved.


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