[Marxism] Is homosexuality persecuted in Cuba?

[Walter Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Much more on this subject may be found here:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/lgbt-cuba.html
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CUBAINFORMACIONTV

Is homosexuality persecuted in Cuba?

http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs1536.html 
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.
NOTE: The website where this is posted is from Spain.
You can watch and listen to this text, in Spanish at
the website


Watch video at:
http://www.cubainformacion.tv/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1631&Itemid=86

By Josà Manzaneda - Coordinator of CubainformaciÃn TV

That homosexuals are persecuted in Cuba is a recurring assertion in
every campaign against the Cuban Revolution, so often and for so long
harped on by the media as to be taken as face value even by
progressive sectors involved in the struggle for the right to sexual
diversity worldwide.

In order to project such a stereotyped image of the Cuban
Revolution's alleged institutional homophobia, several tools to
manipulate information come into play: distortion of the historical
context, failure to take into account what happens in neighboring
countries, silence about Cuba's progress regarding tolerance, and
overstatements of all kinds.

1. Distortion of the historical context

Homophobia prevailed worldwide in the 1960s and 70s, and Cuba was no
exception, As most everywhere, including Europe, homosexual men and
women were held by both society and a number of institutional
apparatuses to be subjects in need of reorientation. In 1965, the
Cuban government established the so-called UMAP (Military Units in
Support of Production), military-like agricultural work camps where
homosexuals and other social groups were sent in place of military
service. Some time later, in the early 1970s, Cuban culture lived
through the "gray quinquennium", a period of marked Soviet influence,
during which the official political culture embraced "socialist
realism" as a frame of creative reference and homosexual
intellectuals and artists were blackballed from public cultural
activity as a result.

In 1967, the UMAPs were disbanded, leaving behind a two-year-long
historic stage called to become a topic for study and debate among
today's Cuban intellectuals, resolved as they are to not let it
happen again. Forty years later, however, the issue is still very
much alive as a target of repeated attacks to defame the Cuban
Revolution.

2. Failure to take into account the geographic context

To some extent, homophobia can be explained as originating in the
Spanish machismo heritage left from colonial times. Sexual diversity
raises eyebrows everywhere and is rejected in Cuba as adamantly as in
the whole of Latin America. Each past and present campaign to portray
Cuba as one remarkably homophobic country is just echoing a lie
fabricated and disseminated by important power circles and the mass
media, irresponsibly helped by some progressive groups.

It must be stressed that there's no law in Cuba against
homosexuality, unlike nearby countries like Nicaragua, Jamaica and
some parts of the United States.

3. Silence about Cuba's social accomplishments

In the last 20 years, plain steps have been taken by the Cuban
society in favor of a tolerant attitude toward various forms of
relationship and sexual expression. These changes have been
transparently reflected by Cuban books and movies, which are openly
and consciously critical of every fabrication ever put forward by the
big media, by itself a far cry from the world market's mainstream
commercial cinema and literature. Released in 1993, the film
"Strawberry and Chocolate" paved the way for extensive debate on
intolerance and homophobia within the Cuban society. Many books,
plays and movies have come out since in which this topic has been
straightforwardly addressed in the country.

Worthy of mention nowadays is the work of institutions like the
National Center for Sex Education, which designs workshops and public
campaigns for tolerance of and in favor of gay, lesbians and
transsexuals, as well as a number of initiatives proposed by the
Cuban National Assembly, where bills are being drafted to protect the
rights of transsexuals and same-sex couples.

An official policy of respect, tolerance and openness prevails in
Cuba nowadays. Gays, lesbians and transvestites alike are better
regarded by other people and have achieved their own space in
society. Yet, it must be emphasized that, much like elsewhere in
Latin America, there's still deep-seated male chauvinism and
prejudice against homosexuals. Saying that social, cultural and
institutional homophobia has been entirely banished, be that in Cuba
or anywhere else in the world, would be a blatant lie.

---ooOoo---


================================
WALTER LIPPMANN
Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
writer - photographer - activist
http://www.walterlippmann.com
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