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

[David Thorstad <binesi@xxxxxxxxx>]

David Thorstad said:

The point here is that Walter appears to assume that an independent gay
organization in Cuba would ipso facto be hostile to the regime and to
communism.

Sky Keyes-Vogt replied:

I don't think its as simple as that. While I think that "increased
democracy" would strengthen the Cuban Revolution - which I support - it is
hard to delineate exactly how to do it so that it won't be manipulated by
superpower Amerikkka. I think it is extrenekt reasonable to assume that any
independent organization would be immediately targeted by U.S. officials as
a point of leverage to challenge not just the Cuban government but the
entire revolution. Should we just endorse any independent formation in the
abstract without taking note of the fact that the U.S. will use it to try to
bring the revolution down no matter who the organization is made up of?
=============================================
Anyone who has spent time in a democratic-centralized organization (as 
Walter and I and many others on this list have) should have no trouble 
with this. Why doesn't the Cuban regime itself sponsor formation of an 
independent gay/lez group and assign gay/lez members of the Communist 
Party to participate in it? That way it would be quite easy to maintain 
serious input, if not outright control, over the activities of such a 
group. Leftist groups can easily form "fractions" to work in nonparty 
organizations, as I wouldn't be surprised happens in the official Cuban 
women's organization. It wouldn't even be necessary to create the gay 
group from the top down as a front group of the regime. Communists, 
being the "best builders" and most ideologically advanced citizens 
should have no trouble agitating for their (revolutionary) goals in such 
an organization. Not, that is, unless all the available CP gay/lez 
members are perceived to be nothing more than hacks and robot stooges of 
higher party bodies (also a possibility, I suppose).
    All this handwringing over the potential threat to the regime from 
an independent gay organization strikes me as reflecting an ongoing 
residue of the longtime hostility to homosexuality in Cuba, and 
particularly the horrendous and heterosupremacist 1971 resolution of the 
first National Congress on Education and Culture that--taking a 
pagestraight out of Stalinism of the 1930s--condemned homosexuality as a 
"social pathology" withg an "antisocial" character. To my knowledge, the 
Cuban regime, while it has made important improvements over that awful 
position since then, has never explicitly condemned it or explained why 
it was wrong. If I am mistaken about this, I hope Walter or someone else 
on the list will point me to the document where the requisite 
self-criticism was made.
    Maybe Cuban homosexuals don't feel they need or want their own 
organization. Maybe they feel the Cuban CP speaks for them and, unlike 
women, they have no special concerns of their own (not even AIDS). But 
have they ever been consulted?
David

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