Mariela Castro Espin, President Raul Castro's Daughter, Champions Cuba's Gay And Transgender Communities

advocate.com:

On sultry Saturday nights in Havana, thousands of young men and women -- including hundreds of gay men, a few lesbians, and many, many beautiful transsexuals and drag queens -- arm themselves with rum, boom boxes, and guitars, transforming the Malecón, a four-mile stretch of the city's north-shore seawall, into a boisterous, joyous outdoor cruise bar. Diesel exhaust from 1957 Chevrolet Bel Airs and boxy, rusted Ladas mixes with cigar smoke and surprisingly sexy cheap cologne. For the most part, the gay element of the crowd consists of flamboyant young queens and tough, handsome machos who wouldn't be out of place in any urban setting from Miami to New York. A roving gay party is spontaneously assembled every weekend, though the exact whereabouts is kept under wraps until the last minute in order to avoid a raid by the police under the pretext of enforcing Cuba's antiprostitution laws and the selectively enforced laws governing freedom of assembly. Open flirtation, even cruising, is an accepted practice on the Malecón. A segment of the young heterosexual male population called jineteros, who would be horrified to hear themselves described as hustlers, are ready to take up for an evening with foreign gay male tourists on the assumption that some sort of gift -- from cigarettes to T-shirts to a meal to money -- will exchange hands as a matter of courtesy.

Read the whole story: advocate.com

Comments

[negotiatethis]

This is a great article, and Castro Espin is doing important work. BUT (there's always a but), the people of Cuba are not afforded many basic human rights. So, making them all equal just gives them all the same lack of rights and opportunities. http://talkingcuba.wordpress.com/

[harriettubman]

With the gay explosion in the world, or more people coming out, and the issues with transgender and intersex, it makes me beg the question of what is happening in our environment to cause this? What is happening during the gestational period to cause the human body to go outside the norm of male/female and procreation? Is it nature, medication? What? It becomes alarming because eventually when a society drastically changes, there are repercussions and that will be the decline in the birth rate. We'll see in about 20-25 yrs.

[JerryLevy]

When the Cuban refugees left in the early 1980s in the famous Marial boat lift, Fidel forced many gays who were not even trying to leave to join them. He also emptied his prisons of common criminals. That is Fidel's views of homosexualtiy, they are are as undesirable as criminals.

[escribacat]

I remember that time -- a couple of gay Cubans moved into the crummy row house across the road from our crummy row house in Sonoma County. My understanding was that they had been in prison. They were clumped together with a third guy who had been in prison for s e x assault. He very soon ra ped another girl in town. The two gay men were sweet and just seemed lost and confused. Very sad.We befriended them and tried to help but there wasn't much we could do for them.

[SigmundF]

Rubbish. I know (and worked with) many Cubans who live and work in Europe - no problem leaving.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh yeah, why then thousand of people risks their lives trying to cross the Florida stretch in rudimentary rafts every year?????...... Are they crazy????.....
People that leave to Europe are "deserters" or "macetas", that minds, people that worked for the government out land and deserted or people that had enough money for buying freedom (macetas)..... it is a minority that has became almost a million in the last 50 years........ but the most cubans, those without money or influence in the governement has only a way to leave the island..... rowing through sharks across Florida stretch.

[piul05]

Try and argue your "infiltrated agent"/"loaded elite" theory with the casino dancers and waiters and physics teachers and pediatricians who are everywhere in the Iberian Peninsula.

[SigmundF]

Can you back your funny "argumentation" with figures, statistics or any kind of proves from any international or national institution????
I can..........
http://www.wsicubaproject.org/cubanimmigration08.cfm

[piul05]

Old news. The Guardian UK was reporting this 3 years ago, in the context of legislation being voted to allow sex changes to be covered by their national Health Service.

[SigmundF]

What the advocate.com describes here is just "the Malecon" (have nothing to do with "male" or "con") a place in Havana where males and females prostitutes, gays prostitutes, travesties prostitutes, pimps, corrupts police officers, drugs sellers and vendors of all kind services concentrates every night (not only weekends).
Prostitution in Cuba has exacerbating since the "revolution" took place..... before castro Cuba's prostitution was limited to Colon neighborhood, a 1.5 miles long street in Havana where females prostitutes offered theirs services .... today the whole Havana is a prostitution place where you can find prostitutes of all genders, ages and political orientation!!!!
Cuba lies among the worlds mains destinies of infantile prostitution according all major international tourism publications.... Among international pedophile recommendation Cuba is one of the better places for living.... you are a pedophile you will never have problems with authorities....... it is the land lord that rent a house or apartment to you who bare the responsibility for the age of your visitors!!!!!..... it is the cuban law!!!!!

[truthartbeauty]

good for her. I hope she can make progress

[SigmundF]

Dear friends,
Some of you know Panfilo, the black cuban of Havana that was put in jail for yelling "Hunger, what we have is hunger"
It’s possible that Panfilo’s unfair condemn has been commuted to a confinement in one of Havana’s Psychiatric Hospitals.
We all know that it is a much worst punishment then been locked in jail. In a psychiatric hospital Panfilo will be “put under medication” without need it, he will be “helped” with electroshock without need it, he will stay there for undetermined time.
We all know this kind of “medical treatment” designed for break the opposites will, we all know the case Mederos…. one of the torturer of Havana’s Psychiatric Hospital that was recognized living in Miami and was judged and condemn with the help of the victims …. so, do not stop asking freedom for Panfilo because now he is worst that before……. Freedom for Panfilo!!!!

[UncleJimbo]

Even a Poor C0mmun!st Nation,more enlightened than the US!

[NoblesseOblige]

Yes, indeed.

[SigmundF]

Don't be naive.... Mariela is part of the regimen propaganda strategy.... the fact is that there is no a regimen in this world with a bigger expedient of crimes on the gay community than Castro's regimen. Starting with the UMAP, a kind of concentration camps for dissidents intellectuals and homosexuals, where thousands of people were murdered, tortured and obligated to work in agricultural projects under the command of homophobic "comrades"; and following with the periodic "cleaning operations" designed and performed to "clean" all Cuban cities of the "homosexual scrap" as the "commanders" of such "operations" called this part of the population.

[piul05]

Mariela Castro has long been an LGBT activist, but has come to some wider international prominence in 2005/2006 (people in other countries such as Brazil have known her work for years), when legislation to have sex changes covered by the National Health Service was introduced and discussed in the Cuban National Assembly.

If I'm not mistaken, it's been implemented since June last year.

[cliffhammond]

What a great way to jump start a soon to boom tourist industry. While the U.S. begins to lift travel restrictions you can look for Havana to become the next La Vida Loca.

[walterlx]

The interview you've shared with Mariela Castro is very good. Thanks so much for sharing it. We normally get so much depressing bad news about the island of Cuba, including from Yoani Sanchez, on Huffington Post, that it was a pleasant surprise to see this one linked on your pages.

Hundreds of original photographs, articles, original translations and much more, going back 45 years, on the trials, tribulations and progress made by Lesbians, Gays, Bi-Sexuals and Transgendered people in Cuba may be found at this web page: http://www.walterlippmann.com/lgbt-cuba.html

Otherwise, google: "LGBT-Cuba" for the same page.

Thanks very much,


Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles, California

[SigmundF]

If the reality for homosexuals in Cuba is so nice as Mariela and you describes in this "governmental site" why then are the gay community overrepresented among the people that scape from Cuba risking their lives in shark infested waters of Florida's stretch????? Note that I wrote "scape"..... there is no other way of leaving Cuba.

[piul05]

Rubbish. I know (and worked with) many Cubans who live and work in Europe - no problem leaving.