Re: [Marxism] LA TIMES bash-o-rama: 'Milk' star Sean Penn: Pal of anti-gay dictators?

[David Thorstad <binesi@xxxxxxxxx>]

Walter Lippmann wrote:
> Yes, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, some Cuban gays were put in
> camps. That was wrong and stupid, but that policy lasted about three
> years and was dropped in the 1970s. At that very same time,
> homosexuality was illegal in the United States, and was defined as an
> illness by the psychiatric establishment.
This is a sloppy formulation, but a common misconception: homosexuality 
per se was never against the law in virtually any country, including 
fascist ones, and never in the United States. It was homosexual 
/behavior/--or, rather, certain homosexual /acts/--that were illegal. 
Some of those acts (e.g., sodomy) were also illegal for other-sexers, 
though rarely used against heterosexuals.

Kirchick:
> Though Cuba has since decriminalized homosexuality,
> the government still bans all gay organizations or any other group
> critical of the regime.
This is correct. I have long criticized the Cuban regime for banning 
independent gay/lez organizations and publications. Does Walter still 
explain the lack of gay publications (as he has to me in the past) to an 
alleged lack of paper? I rather suspect that, except for the Roman 
Catholic Church and maybe some Santeria expressions, independent 
self-organization is not tolerated by the Cuban one-party state.
David

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