Arenas quotes Fidel Castro as having remarked in a 1965 interview that a homosexual could never be “a true Communist militant.” According to Castro, it was a matter of nature clashing with politics.
In that same year, a national program was set up ostensibly to provide an alternative to military duty. In reality, it created concentration camps where forced labor was used to “reform” anyone identified as “deviant.” This category included not only homosexuals but also Jehovah’s Witnesses, hippies, and conscientious objectors. Gay men in particular were targeted for both physical and verbal abuse. By the 1990s, Castro began to soften his stance on GLBT rights, to the point that he recently declared that the persecution of homosexuals was “a great injustice” for which he accepted personal responsibility.Īnd yet, only a few years earlier, many gay men and lesbians had been attracted by the revolution’s promise of a new society, one that would be more egalitarian and sexually liberated. His niece, Mariela Castro, has taken up the rights of transsexuals with gusto.
#CUBANO PORNO GAY FREE#
Sex reassignment surgery is now free to eligible citizens. But ordinary Cubans, it seems, are not ready to listen just yet. Today, there is only one “official” gay bar in all of Cuba, and it’s not in Havana. It’s in Santa Clara, scene of a historic battle that handed Castro control of the country more than half a century ago. The city is now a tourist destination, and the bar in question is famous for its transvestite shows. Think Disney World presents Stonewall à la Copacabana.
It’s basically a spot for tourists, not for Cubans. I asked the gay threesome in La Habana Vieja where the “secret” gay clubs were. They named a few bars, but said that to find gay Cubans you simply had to go to La Rampa, a small tourist area leading down to the Malecón. They also named a nearby city park in the old town that was a cruising ground at night.
“ Los Cubanos no son peligrosos,” he told me.