Sexual Diversity, Judging or Understanding?

Cuba celebrates International Day Against Homophobia, May 17, for the first time

On Sunday, the Mothers’ Day, Ana Elena woke up early in the morning and got ready for the visit of her children, daughters-in-law and grandchildren, who will meet with her in Santa Clara to offer her a happy evening, surrounded by love, lots of presents, and specially, far from house shores.

However, the present she needed the most, the only one she asks life for everyday, at dawn and before going to be, is that her younger sister forgives her and comes back home.

The breaking-off took place in the middle of a family party. Someone made a joke about transvestites who work in the El Mejunje and the young girl reacted very upset. Everyone gave their opinion; they stated scientific, moral and philosophical points of view... Elena throw the straw that broke the camel’s back by saying that those people were a shame for her family and that they should not come back to their homes ever.

The next day, the clothes of her daughter were not in the closet and her discs had disappeared from the bookcase. Then, she understood with a blow a true that she tried to deny since the girl became an adolescent, always lonely, silent, without boyfriends or girl friend, apathetic to parties, fashion...

For many months, the same questions fed Elena’s frustration over and over again, “What did I do wrong? Who did she get that from?” Every look seemed to mock her. She could not understand why her daughter humiliated her in this way. “How long is she going to go on like this? What if I take her to the doctor...?”

When she heard about the issue in the radio, it was like a whip to her conscience and turned it off. She also stopped watching the soap operas; first the Cuban one, where she saw her daughter as a mixture of Amanda and Yaser —two of the teenager characters— and then the Brazilian ones, every time more direct in their references to the matter.

The decisive thrust was a conversation between her older, eight-year-old grand-daughter and some of her friends from school. One of them talked rudely about the girl’s aunt and the child answered back unperturbed, “My aunt is homosexual, and so what? My mom says that there’s nothing wrong with that. You have a dirty mouth. If the teacher hears you...”

Expelled from paradise

In 1993, a movie metaphor brought the topic of sexual diversity in Cuba to light and to national debate.

Since the 1959 triumph of the Revolution, rejection to the supposed women’s weakness and homophobia, among other reasons, prompted Cuban women to organize themselves into the FMC (Cuban Women Federation) to fight for their rights and those of their children, without excluding lesbians and transsexuals.

Although we cannot yet talk about genre equality in all its dimension, the advance in this sense is considerable, said Mariela Castro Espín, director of the National Center of Sexual Education (CENESEX). However, acceptance and respect towards sexual diversity has been more difficult to realize, given prejudices well rooted in our culture. “Sexology in relation to law, medicine and psychiatry built up definitions that are still present in the social imaginary,” she said.

Between 1960 and 1970, the country used inappropriate policies towards homosexuals. They were seen as suffering from an illness and lacking the ability to adapt, as per prevailing medical diagnosis, explained Dr.Alberto Roque, a specialist from the CENESEX Sexual Diversity Project.

Gradually, these errors were corrected, even before the World Health Organization (WHO) removed homosexuality and bisexuality from their list of mental illnesses on May 17, 1990. This is why that date was chosen to mark International Day Against Homophobia, which Cuba will celebrate for the first time this year with cultural and social activities taking place across the country under the slogan, “Diversity is the norm.” The day will be used to promote respect for the right for free and responsible sexual orientation and gender identity as an exercise of equality and social justice.

The Cuban Law Written with ‘H’

Homophobia —individually as much as institutional embraced— implies vehement attitudes against gays, lesbians, transvestites, transsexuals or bisexuals, expressed by anything from silence to extreme physical violence.

The Cuban Criminal Code, derived from Spain’s, for many years sanctioned any public display of homosexuality, until in 1988 when that ruling was repealed.

Cuba’s Family Act has also been under study for 15 years, in accordance with a proposal by the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC). Their aim is to eliminate obstacles in the solution of numerous family conflicts and adapting that concept to the current situation of the country, explained Mariela Castro, director of Cuba’s National Center for Sex Education CENESEX.

Among the proposed modifications is included the right to sexual orientation and gender identity, and its recognition in each person’s legal documents. This topic is being debated in three permanent commissions of the Cuban Parliament. The purpose is to achieve approval for a final ruling that is not arbitrary, specified Castro.

Likewise, she clarified that it is not necessary to specify marriage as being expressly among people of the same sex, since the current legal code grants common law unions the same basic rights that it does formalized unions, this can function for homosexual as much as it does for heterosexuals, with the due clarifications in the law.

These initiatives —disclosed through a communication strategy that includes the media, schools and the community— do not seek “homo-sexualize” society, as has been expressed by some people to our newspaper. Rather, these are attempts to progressively humanize society, and to provide families with the legal and psychological instruments that can aid them in upholding the responsibilities of each of their members.

Homosexual unions are recognized in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Germany, France, Great Britain, Luxemburg and Switzerland. In addition, Holland, Spain, Belgium, Canada and the US state of Massachusetts have approved civil marriages between people of the same sex. In Latin America some norms exist in that direction in regions of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, while Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile and Uruguay going through legislative processes with respect to similar rulings.

Any homosexual couple that visits Cuba can count of official respect for their matrimonial union, but in the event the became temporary or permanent residents of the country, this would not be legally recognized, explained Alberto Roque, a specialist from CENESEX.