by Gerardo Arreola
December 15, 2007
Cuba considers the official homophobia of the past decades "an error"
but this period still needs discussing: "what happened has to be
analysed," says sexologist Mariela Castro Espín. The director of the
National Centre of Sex Education (Cenesex) announced at the start of
last year a legal initiative to recognise the rights of the transsexuals
to identity and to clinical attention, a proposal that has been
reformulated through discussion. The project, which still awaits
legislative passage, has incorporated among other points the rights of
free sexual orientation… and of adoption for same sex pairs, comparable
to heterosexual unions. Mariela (is) daughter of the stand-in President,
Raúl Castro, and Vilma Espín, the late defender of gender rights.
A controversy broke out last January about the 'quinquenio gris' (refers
to a gray period, variously interpreted as being of five to fifteen
years), as the censorship and homophobic discrimination of the Seventies
is remembered. Mariela, who participated in the debate, was asked if the
discussion would have to extend to other aspects of the past like
penalisation of "ostentatious" homosexuality or the agricultural camps
where people of that orientation were interned.
She points out that "in the history of a human being, errors are made
and one has to go on learning and taking lessons from those mistakes.
But institutions also commit errors and have to be capable of
recognising why it was a mistake and what it is going to do so that the
mistakes are not repeated, what laws have to be established, which
values have to be instituted".
"The errors which Cuba committed were very similar to those that were
and still are committed in many countries. Cuba was a reflection of the
world. The same happened here that happened in other places, only that
much more got out because it was expected that a Socialist revolution
could not commit those errors because it was a revolution for the
emancipation of man. The ideology at that time was permeated with
homophobia and prejudices. The Communist parties were very homophobic.
It is recently that they have more inclusive attitudes."
Reviewing the achievements and obstacles in overcoming the decades of
discrimination, Mariela considers that the Cuban media "still timidly
approaches" sexual diversity. "They are losing the fear": last year a
telenovela which tackled male bisexuality caused an intense social
controversy; the newspaper Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth) has a section
on sex; television approaches the theme in a comedy programmes and a
short drama was broadcast about a lesbian pair.
But prejudice is still deep-rooted in society and in the government:
"There still are institutions that take the right to decide if a
lesbian, gay or transsexual person can or not occupy a post." In the
educational sector "we have achieved very little": schools turn down
transsexuals who wish to dress according to their real sex… they are
vulnerable to mockery and rejection and abandon studies. Cenesex speaks
with the police about how to behave in public spaces with homosexuals or
transsexuals: "there are people very grateful for that conversation
though others are not so receptive".
A group of transsexuals work at the centre getting ready to become
health promoters " so that society sees them that way and not as a
curse"; there is another group of lesbians and in both cases they
discuss common problems, at times with the participation of families.
Hoping that the initiatives with reach their legislative passage, at a
still to be determined date, Cenesex works to "educate the public that
deserves to be informed before a thing like this is set on them from the
blue. Because if not, the people will feel upset and broken".
Published in La Jornada, Mexico, on December 10, 2007.
Slightly abridged and translated from Spanish by Supriyo Chatterjee
http://nuestrosricos.blogspot.com/
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=91&ItemID=14507
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