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The Rise of Gay Tolerance in Cuba: the Case of the UN Vote

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The Rise of Gay Tolerance in Cuba: the Case of the UN Vote NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS REPORT: CUBA The Rise of Gay Tolerance in Cuba: The Case of the UN Vote By Noëlle Stout N NOVEMBER 2010, THE UNITED NATIONS ELIMI- nificantly, Mariela Castro Espin, the director of nated protections from extrajudicial or arbi- Cuba's National Center for Sexual Education I trary executions because of sexual orientation. (CENESEX) and the daughter of President Raúl With the support of the Cuban delegation, the Castro, released a statement on the CENFSEX Third General Assembly changed language spe- website pointing out how the vote contra- cifically denouncing killings inspired by sexual dicted the decriminalization of homosexuality identity, adding the ambiguous term "discrimi- in Cuba."* In a similar vein. Dr. Alberto Roque, natory reasons." Although the Cuban delegation the president of the sexual diversity unit of the had originally supported the 2008 decree that Cuban Multidisciplinary Society for the Study protected gays and lesbians from executions, in of Sexuality (SOCUMES), emphasized how 2010 the representatives supported removing the Cuba had sided with governments that bar- explicit mention of sexuality. barically applied the death penalty for same-sex The 2010 vote ignited a public controversy on practice. According to the leaders of CFNESEX the island, as Cubans accused government leaders and SOCUMES, sexual and gender identity of failing to promote sexual equality Cuban blog- were "inalienable rights of each individual," and gers were among the most vocal critics. Marxist sexual rights are "human rights."'' blogger Yasmin Portales Machado charged govern- Cuban criticism of the UN vote circulated ment leaders with sacrificing gay rights to solidify primarily on the Internet, and although only political alliances.' Similarly Francisco Rodriguez 14% of Cubans have Web access, the blog Cruz, a gay activist and Communist militant, pub- posts garnered unprecedented attention from Noëlle Stout (eacfies lished an open letter on his blog to the Cuban for- policy makers.^ Minister of Foreign Affairs anthropology at New eign minister warning against a return to the violent York University. Bruno Rodriguez Parilla responded to the objec- Her book. Queer homophobia of Cuba's past.^ Yoani Sánchez, the tions by publishing a note in support of Cuban Cuba: Sexuality and most internationally renowned Cuban blogger, LGBT communities and inviting bloggers and Inequality in the argued that the vote was equivalent to supporting CENESEX activists to discuss the UN resolu- Post-Soviet Era, is the death penalty for homosexuality and criticized tion. At the same time, however, he maintained forthcoming (Duke the lack of free speech on the island. "Not a single University Press). that the delegates had considered the resolution Research in Cuba was word is said by the official press, " Sánchez wrote. sufficiently inclusive without the clause specify- generously supported "No travestis* have been able to go out and protest ing sexual orientation. by the National in the Plaza of the Revolution."' Cubans were not alone in their indignation. Säence Foundation, Gay advocates in state-sponsored agen- International gay advocates launched a cam- the David Rockefeller Center for Latin cies who typically avoided overt political paign to call for the UN representatives to recon- American Studies criticism also condemned the vote. Most sig- sider their position. A month after the vote, in at Harvard, and November 2010, the UN Assembly answered the Center for Latin * I leave tbe word frai'esi; untranslated because tbe term transgender international criticism by reintroducing sexual American and Carib- tor U.S. readers too strongly suggests a transition from one gen- orientation to the decree. In the revote, the bean Studies at New der to another. Cuban travestis I interviewed very rarely used the York University.. Spanish word for transgender(fraf)sgenero), and when they did, they Cuban delegates abstained—a mere softening of were referring to women who had sex-change operations. their earlier position. 34 JULY/AUGUST 2011 REPORT: CUBA Mariela Castro Espin (center), head of Cuba's National Center for Sex Education and daughter of Cuba's president, Raúl Castro, holds a jay pride flag during the May Day parade at Havana's Revolution Square on May 1. The representatives' ambivalent position most likely institutionalize sexual equality in Cuba. On the other reflected tensions between Cuba and the United States, hand, the public outcry against the Cuban representa- whose delegation had taken the lead in encouraging tives reflects the expanding reach of Cuba's gay tolerance the General Assembly to revisit the amendment. In movement. Moreover, the role of advocates in shifting response, the Cuban foreign minister accused the U.S. policy hints at a changing relationship between post- diplomats of pohtical posturing and claimed that the Soviet civil society and government leaders, indicating a United States had mandated extrajudicial executions at widening sphere of public debate. home and abroad. If the Cuban representatives had fol- lowed the U.S. initiative in the revote, it could legitimate CROSS DIFFERENCES OF COLOR, ECONOMIC BACKGROUND, the United States as a leader in promoting gay rights. and gender, gay Cubans often describe a mixed In the ongoing competition over which national gov- A record of improvements and setbacks since the ernment can claim to be a leading defender of "human late 1980s. Government leaders decriminalized homo- rights," this would represent a loss for Cuba. sexuality in the penal code in 1988, and in the follow- The debate surrounding the UN vote raises key issues ing decades gay themes gained unprecedented visibility regarding the contemporary status of Cubans with non- in state-sponsored cultural and health arenas—two ar- conforming gender and sexual identities. On the one eas that the socialist government emphasized since the hand, Cuban diplomats' hesitant embrace of the amend- 1959 Revolution. During field research in Havana, gay ment protecting gays indicates ongoing struggles to men and women explained to me that homosexuality is 35 NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS REPORT: CUBA now tolerated but still not accepted. For instance, citi- is still pending at the time of publication). Submitted in zens cannot be arrested for homosexuality, and sexual collaboration with the Federation of Cuban Women, the diversity is increasingly recognized as natural in public law would also extend social programs for travestis and discourse. Yet subtle forms of discrimination persist in allow them to change identity cards without undergoing many neighborhoods, workplaces, and families. sexual-reassignment surgery. In the 1990s, a new generation of artists and writ- Cuban proponents of gay tolerance have tended to ers reinlroduced homosexual characters and homoerotic reject a model of identity politics, instead insisting on a themes that had been censored smce the 1960s.' The depoliticized movement that seeks to integrate gays into most iconic example of queer visibility in state-sponsored mainstream society Instead of rallying around a separate- art was the debut of a gay protagonist in the film Fresa y but-equal identity, gay advocates have emphasized chocolate (1994), directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and uprooting homophobia and integrating gay citizens into Juan Carlos Tabío. The film followed the unlikely friend- nationalist projects. For instance, CENESEX organizers ship between a headstrong Communist militant studying sponsor an annual National Day Against Homophobia and at the University of Havana and an eccentric gay intel- question the separatist undertones of a "gay pride" march. lectual forced to leave the island. Critics pointed out This framing situates homosexual rights within socialist how the film offered a monumental moment for Cuban movements for equality, linking contemporary struggles to queer visibility, but also presented an asexual gay char- the fundamental principles of the 1959 Revolution. Work- acter who defended Cuban culture at all costs." While ing within state-funded arts and public health agencies, as some state-sponsored artistic representations presented opposed to denouncing the government, advocates work a romanticized gay Cuban intellectual that bordered on to assimilate gay lesbian, bisexual, and transgender citi- stereotype, many artists more forcefully pushed the lim- zens into the Cuban national imaginary. its of censorship. For example, writers and directors in Havana's performing arts deployed more radical queer Most of the urban gays I interviewed in the last decade representations to critique socialist conformity and sati- expressed high regard for CENESEX and referred to rize the dilemmas of everyday life. Castro Espin with affection, even if they were uninter- ested in gay politics. CENESEX is not without detractors, More recently, a gay protagonist premiered on state- however. Cuban historian of sexuality Abel Sierra Madero run television, the most conservative artistic medium, has criticized the organization for what he sees as a nor- in the Cuban-produced telenovela La otra cara de la luna mative approach to sexuality that prevents a more direct (2006). The melodrama received mixed reviews because confrontation with homophobia.'" the character was a married man who realized his gay By rooting anti-discrimination policies within revo- identity after succumbing to an extramarital affair with lutionary socialism, Cuban activists have challenged the another man and contracting
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