Before the arrival of the Spanish, Cuba was inhabited
by three distinct tribes of indigenous peoples of the Americas. The Taíno (an
Arawak people), the Guanahatabey and the Ciboney people. The ancestors of the
Ciboney migrated from the mainland of South America, with the earliest sites
dated to 5,000 BP. The Taíno arrived from Hispanola sometime in the 3rd century
A.D. When Columbus arrived they were the dominant culture in Cuba, having an
estimated population of 150,000. The Taíno were farmers, while the Ciboney were
farmers as well as fishers and hunter-gatherers.
Ethnoracial
groups
Cuba's population is multiethnic, reflecting its
complex colonial origins. Intermarriage between diverse groups is widespread,
and consequently there is some discrepancy in reports of the country's racial
composition: whereas the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the
University of Miami determined that 62% of Cubans are black, the 2002 Cuban
census found that a similar proportion of the population, 65.05%, was white.
In fact, the Minority Rights Group International
determined that "An objective assessment of the situation of Afro-Cubans
remains problematic due to scant records and a paucity of systematic studies
both pre- and post-revolution. Estimates of the percentage of people of African
descent in the Cuban population vary enormously, ranging from 34% to 62%".
A 2014 study found that, based on ancestry informative
markers (AIM), autosomal genetic ancestry in Cuba is 72% European, 20% African,
and 8% Indigenous. Around 35% of maternal lineages derive from Cuban Indigenous
People, compared to 39% from Africa and 26% from Europe, but male lineages were
European (82%) and African (18%), indicating a historical bias towards mating
between foreign men and native women rather than the inverse.
Asians makeup about 1% of the population, and are
largely of Chinese ancestry, followed by Japanese.[245][246] Many are
descendants of farm laborers brought to the island by Spanish and American
contractors during the 19th and early 20th century. The current recorded number
of Cubans with Chinese ancestry is 114,240.
Afro-Cubans are descended primarily from the Yoruba
people, Bantu people from the Congo basin, Carabali people and Arará from the
Dahomey as well as several thousand North African refugees, most notably the
Sahrawi Arabs of Western Sahara.
In 2010, the Pew Forum estimated that religious
affiliation in Cuba is 65% Christian (60% Roman Catholic or about 6.9 million
in 2016, 5% Protestant or about 575,000 in 2016), 23% unaffiliated, 17% folk
religion (such as santería), and the remaining 0.4% consisting of other
religions
Spanish is, of course, the primary language of Cuba
During the mid 1970’s to the late 1980 the Soviet
Union helped supply Cuba with military resources but since then Cuba has had to
scale back their military because of lack of assistance from Russia. But Cuba’s law enforcement is headed by the
Revolutionary Armed Forces. The Cuban government also has an agency called the
Intelligence Directorate that conducts intelligence operations and maintains
close ties with the Russian Federal Security Service.
The Cuban government has been accused of nu
merous
human rights abuses including torture, arbitrary imprisonment, unfair trials,
and extrajudicial executions (also known as "El Paredón"). Human
Rights Watch has stated that the government "represses nearly all forms of
political dissent" and that "Cubans are systematically denied basic
rights to free expression, association, assembly, privacy, movement, and due
process of law"
Cuba had the second-highest number of imprisoned
journalists of any nation in 2008 (China had the highest) according to various
sources, including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Human Rights Watch Cuban dissidents face arrest and imprisonment. In the
1990s, Human Rights Watch reported that Cuba's extensive prison system, one of
the largest in Latin America, consists of 40 maximum-security prisons, 30
minimum-security prisons, and over 200 work camps. According to Human Rights
Watch, Cuba's prison population is confined in "substandard and unhealthy
conditions, where prisoners face physical and sexual abuse".
In July 2010, the unofficial Cuban Human Rights
Commission said there were 167 political prisoners in Cuba, a fall from 201 at
the start of the year. The head of the commission stated that long prison
sentences were being replaced by harassment and intimidation. During the entire
period of Castro's rule over the island, an estimated 200,000 people had been
imprisoned or deprived of their freedoms for political reasons.
LGBTQ
in Cuba
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons
in Cuba may face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents.
Attitudes and acceptance towards LGBT people have
evolved significantly, though a culture of machismo and homophobia is quite
still present in Cuba. In 2018, the National Assembly voted to legalize
same-sex marriage and prohibit all discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation and gender identity, with a constitutional referendum to be held in
February 2019. However, same-sex marriage was later removed from the draft
Constitution. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender
identity is illegal in Cuba.
Historically, public antipathy towards LGBT people was
high, reflecting regional norms. This has eased since the 1990s. Educational
campaigns on LGBT issues are currently implemented by the National Center for
Sex Education, headed by Mariela Castro, daughter of former President and
current Communist Party First Secretary Raúl Castro. Pride parades in Havana
are held every May, to coincide with the International Day Against Homophobia.
Attendance has grown every year.
In pre-revolution Cuba, there were a few LGBT-friendly
bars in Cuban cities, such as the St. Michel, the Dirty Dick, and El Gato
Tuerto in Havana. But Cuba had strict laws that criminalized homosexuality
and targeted gay men for harassment. "To be a maricón (faggot) was to be
a social outcast."
Discrete lesbian or gay male identities in the modern
sense - identities that are based on self-definition and involve emotional as
well as physical aspects of same-sex relations - were rare. Erotic loyalty
(and, in the case of women, subservience) to the opposite sex was assumed to be
normal even by homosexuals. Hence, for many Cubans of this era, homosexuality
was a mere addendum to customary marital roles. Among others, it was just a
profitable commodification of sexual fantasy. For the vast majority,
homosexuality made life a shameful and guilt-ridden experience.
Homosexuality was a component of the thriving industry
of prostitution in Cuba, with many gay men drawn into prostitution largely for
visitors and servicemen from the United States. Homosexuality also was linked
to gambling and crime.
History
Pre-revolution
Cuba
In pre-revolution Cuba, there were a few LGBT-friendly
bars in Cuban cities, such as the St. Michel, the Dirty Dick, and El Gato
Tuerto in Havana. But Cuba had strict laws that criminalized homosexuality
and targeted gay men for harassment. "To be a maricón (faggot) was to be
a social outcast.”
Discrete lesbian or gay male identities in the modern
sense - identities that are based on self-definition and involve emotional as
well as physical aspects of same-sex relations - were rare. Erotic loyalty
(and, in the case of women, subservience) to the opposite sex was assumed to be
normal even by homosexuals. Hence, for many Cubans of this era, homosexuality
was a mere addendum to customary marital roles. Among others, it was just a
profitable commodification of sexual fantasy. For the vast majority,
homosexuality made life a shameful and guilt-ridden experience.
Homosexuality was a component of the thriving industry
of prostitution in Cuba, with many gay men drawn into prostitution largely for
visitors and servicemen from the United States. Homosexuality also was linked
to gambling and crime.
Post-revolution
Cuba
Further information: LGBT rights under communism
Homophobia
and labor camps during the 1960s
With the profit motive eradicated by the revolution,
the superficial tolerance of LGBT persons by the strongly homophobic Cuban
society quickly evaporated. Emigration to Miami began immediately, including
lesbians and gay men who had worked for United States firms or had done
domestic work for the native bourgeoisie. LGBT people who already had lived
largely abroad moved away permanently.
The homophobia and heterosexism that already existed
... became more systematized and institutionalized. Gender and sexuality
explicitly entered political discourse even as vaguely worded laws increasingly
targeted gender-transgressive men who were believed to be homosexual ...
whereas lesbianism remained unnamed and invisible. Between 1959 and 1980, male homosexuals suffered a range of consequences from limited career options
to detention in street sweeps to incarceration in labor camps. ... Long hair,
tight pants, colorful shirts, so-called effeminate mannerisms,
"inappropriate clothing," and "extravagant hairstyles" were
seen as visible markers of male homosexuality. Such visible markers not only
facilitated enforcement of homosexual repression; more broadly, visibility and
gender transgressions themselves constituted a central part of the problem
identified by the revolution. Even during the severest period of enforcement,
Marvin Leiner reminds us, private homosexual expression was never the main
target. Rather, "... the major concern, as it had always been, was with
the public display of homosexuality."
Many of the progressive LGBT persons who remained in
Cuba became involved in counter-revolutionary activities, independently or
through encouragement of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and were
jailed. The 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, commando attacks from Florida bases, and
internal CIA-sponsored subversion created in Cuba an increased concern over
national security. Realistic fears gave rise to paranoia, and anyone who was
"different" fell under suspicion. Homosexual bars and La Rampa
cruising areas were perceived as centers of counter-revolutionary activities
and they began to be systematically treated as such.[8] The gay community was
seen as a threat to the military order.
Cuba's new ally, the Soviet Union, had hostile
policies towards gays and lesbians, seeing homosexuality as a product of the
decadent capitalist society prevailing in Cuba in the 1950s. Fidel Castro made
insulting comments about homosexuality. Castro's admiring description of rural
life in Cuba ("in the country, there are no homosexuals")
reflected the idea of homosexuality as bourgeois decadence, and he denounced
"maricones" as "agents of imperialism". Castro explained
his reasoning in a 1965 interview:
We would never come to believe that a homosexual
could embody the conditions and requirements of conduct that would enable us to
consider him a true Revolutionary, a true Communist militant. A deviation of
that nature clashes with the concept we have of what a militant Communist must
be.
According to Ian Lumsden, traditional Spanish machismo
and the Catholic Church have disdained effeminate and sexually passive males
for centuries. The homophobia exposed during the revolution was a mere
continuation of the well-established culture of machismo and the rigid gender
roles of pre-revolutionary Cuba. Barbara Weinstein, professor of Latin
American history at New York University and co-editor of the Hispanic American
Historical Review, said that gay people were defined as deviant and decadent
but not weak or sick. She also claimed that the way that the Cuban revolution
came to power gave it a stronger sense of masculinity than other revolutions.
The guerrilla experience pervaded the political structure and the guerrilla
army itself became the nucleus of a new society.
Cuban gay writer Reinaldo Arenas wrote, "The
decade of the sixties ... was precisely when all the new laws against
homosexuals came into being, when the persecution started and concentration
camps were opened, when the sexual act became taboo while the 'new man' was
being proclaimed and masculinity was being exalted." LGBT persons were
imprisoned frequently, particularly effeminate males, without charge or trial,
and confined to forced labor camps.
Camps of forced labor were instituted with all speed
to "correct" such deviations ... Verbal and physical mistreatment,
shaved heads, work from dawn to dusk, hammocks, dirt floors, scarce food ...
The camps became increasingly crowded as the methods of arrest became more
expedient.
In 1965, the country-wide Military Units to Aid
Production (UMAP) program was set up as an alternative form of military service
for members of pacifist religious groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, hippies,
conscientious objectors, and gay men. It was believed that the work, together
with the strict regimes operating within the UMAP camps, would
"rehabilitate" the participants. The camps became notorious both
inside and outside Cuba. Although the camps ended up targeting gay men more
than most, "there is no evidence that [they] were created with homosexuals
exclusively in mind."
A homosexual man who worked in a UMAP camp described
the conditions there as follows, “Work is hard because it's nearly always in
the sun. We work 11 hours a day (cutting marble in a quarry) from seven in the
morning to seven at night, with one hour's lunch break.” Fidel Castro visited
one of the UMAP camps incognito to experience the treatment for himself. He was
followed by 100 boys from the Young Communist League whose identity was also
kept secret. In 1968, shortly after these visits, the camps closed. Castro
said, "They weren't units of internment or punishment. However, after a
visit I discovered the distortion in some places, of the original idea, because
you can't deny that there were prejudices against homosexuals. I personally
started a review of this matter. Those units only lasted three years."
Many gay artists and intellectuals like Reinaldo
Arenas were attracted to the socialist promise of an egalitarian society, which
would pave the way for cultural and sexual freedom and social justice. Gay
writers largely wrote the popular journal Lunes de Revolución. Its radical
ideas seemed to enjoy the favor of the Cuban Government. But a couple of years
after Castro's rise to power, this journal was closed down amidst a wave of
media censorship. Its gay writers were publicly disgraced, refused publication,
and dismissed from their jobs. Some were reassigned to work as janitors and laborers.
This period was dramatically documented in the 1980s
documentary Improper Conduct, Reinaldo Arenas in his 1992 autobiography, Before
Night Falls, as well as in his fiction, most notably The Color of Summer and
Farewell to the Sea.
Negative
attitudes during most of the 1970s
Homophobia in Cuba persisted in the 1970s, with more
tolerant attitudes beginning to appear in the mid-1970s.
Although the UMAP program ended in 1968, the camps
themselves continued. They became military units, and the same types of men
were sent there as were sent to the UMAP camps. The only difference was that
the men were paid a pitiful salary for their long and harsh working hours while
living under very difficult and inhumane conditions. A 1984 documentary,
Improper Conduct, interviewed several men who had been sent to these camps. In
his autobiography, My Life, Fidel Castro claims the internment camps were used
in lieu of the mistreatment homosexuals were receiving in the military during
the Cuban intervention in Angola and other conflicts. They would do laborious
tasks and be housed roughly, but some saw it as better than joining the Cuban
military because there, they would often be publicly humiliated and discharged
by homophobic elements.
After a discussion of homosexuality at the Cuban
Educational and Cultural Congress in April 1971, homosexuality was declared to
be a deviation incompatible with the revolution. Homosexuality was considered
sufficient grounds for discriminatory measures to be adopted against the gay
community, and homophobia was institutionalized. Gay and lesbian artists,
teachers, and actors lost their jobs. Gays and lesbians were expelled from the
Communist Party. Students were expelled from university. Gays were prohibited
from having contact with children and young people. Gays were not allowed to
represent their country.
A
more tolerant policy slowly began to emerge in 1975.
In 1975, the People's Supreme Court found in favor of
a group of marginalized gay artists who were claiming compensation and
reinstatement in their place of work. The court's ruling was the initial change
in official attitudes towards gays and lesbians. In the same year, a new
Ministry of Culture was formed under the leadership of Armando Hart Dávalos,
resulting in a more liberal cultural policy. In addition, a commission was
established to investigate homosexuality, leading to the decriminalization of
private, adult, non-commercial and consensual same-sex relationships in 1979.
Gradual
liberalization during the 1980s
Cuban gays were expelled or took the opportunity to
leave Cuba during the 1980 Mariel boatlift. From the early stages of the
massive exodus, the Government described homosexuals as part of the
"scum" that needed to be discarded so the socialist society could be
purified. Some homosexuals were given the ultimatum of either imprisonment (or
extended terms for those already imprisoned) or leaving the country, although
Fidel Castro publicly denied that anyone was being forced to leave.
In 1981, the Ministry of Culture stated in a
publication entitled "In Defense of Love" that homosexuality was a variant of human sexuality. The ministry argued that homophobic bigotry was an
unacceptable attitude inherited by the revolution and that all sanctions
against gays should be opposed.
In 1986, the National Commission on Sex Education
publicly opined that homosexuality was a sexual orientation and that homophobia
should be countered by education.[10] Gay author Ian Lumsden has claimed that
since 1986 there is "little evidence to support the contention that the persecution
of homosexuals remains a matter of state policy".
In 1988, the Government repealed the 1938 Public
Ostentation Law and the police received orders not to harass LGBT people. In a
1988 interview with Galician television, Castro criticized the rigid attitudes
that had prevailed towards homosexuality.
Toward the end of the 1980s, literature with gay
subject matter began to re-emerge.
More rapid liberalization since 1990
In a 1993 interview with a former Nicaraguan
Government official, Tomás Borge, Fidel Castro declared that he opposed
policies against LGBT people as he considered homosexuality to be a natural
tendency that should be respected. The same year, a series of sex education
workshops were run throughout the country carrying the message that homophobia
was a prejudice. That same year, the Government lifted its ban on allowing LGBT
persons from serving openly in the military. Since 1993, lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender persons may serve openly in the Cuban Revolutionary Armed
Forces. However, discrimination is still common in the Cuban military so LGBT
people serving tend to hide their sexual orientation.
In 1994, the feature film Strawberry and Chocolate, produced
by the government-run Cinema of Cuba and Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, featured a gay
main character. The film criticized the country's narrow, doctrinaire ways of
thinking in the 1970s and discussed anti-gay prejudice and the unjust treatment
suffered by gays. The film provoked a great deal of comment and discussion
among the public.
In 1995, Cuban drag queens led the annual May Day
procession, joined by two gay delegations from the United States.
According to a Human Rights Watch report, "the
government [in 1997] ... heightened harassment of homosexuals, raiding several
nightclubs known to have gay clientele and allegedly beating and detaining
dozens of patrons." Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar was reported to
be among several hundred people detained in a raid on Havana's most popular gay
discothèque, El Periquiton. According to a United States government report,
Cuban customers of the club were fined and warned of imprisonment if they did
not stop publicly displaying their homosexuality. The foreigners who were
detained were released after a check of their documents. Many of the Cuban gay
and lesbian clientele were reportedly beaten by police. This crackdown
extended to other known gay meeting places throughout the capital, such as Mi
Cayito, a beach east of Havana, where gays were arrested, fined, or threatened
with imprisonment.
After this crackdown, Cuban gays and lesbians began
keeping a lower profile amid intermittent sweeps of gay and lesbian meeting
places. Castro's apparent criticism of Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and his last film
Guantanamera during a speech in February 1998 seemed to cast a further chill
over Cuba's gay community. Still, a number of clandestine gay clubs continued
to operate sporadically in private homes.
In December 2000, half of all the Latin American films
shown at the Havana Film Festival had gay themes. Gay and lesbian film
festivals are now run in a number of Cuban cities, and in October 2005, a
Sexual Diversity Cinema Week was held in Pinar del Río.
Yet, in 2001, the police operated a campaign against
homosexuals and transvestites, and prevented them from meeting in the street,
fined them and closed down meeting places.
In 2004, the soap opera El jardín de los helechos
(Garden of Ferns) included a lesbian couple as part of its plot.[10] That same
year, however, the BBC reported that "Cuban police have once again
launched a campaign against homosexuals, specifically directed at travestis
(transvestites) whom they are arresting if they are dressed in women's
clothing."
Carlos Sanchez, the male representative of the
International Lesbian, Gay, Trans and Intersex Association for the Latin
America and Caribbean Region, visited Cuba in 2004. While there, he asked about
the status of lesbians and gays in the country and asked the Cuban Government
why it had abstained from the vote on the "Brazilian Resolution", a
2003 proposal to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights that would
symbolically recognize the "occurrence of violations of human rights in
the world against persons on the grounds of their sexual orientation." The
Government argued that the resolution could be used to further attack and
isolate Arab countries, consistent with "North American aggression against
Afghanistan and Iraq". Sanchez also asked about the possibility of
creating an LGBT organization in Cuba. The Government said that the formation
of the organization would distract attention from national security in light of
constant threats from the United States. After meeting with some Cuban LGBT
people, Sanchez reported the following observations:
"Neither institutional nor penal repression
exists against lesbians and homosexuals."
"There are no legal sanctions against LGBT
people."
"People are afraid of meeting and organizing
themselves. It is mainly based on their experience in previous years, but one
can assume that this feeling will disappear in the future if lesbians and gays
start to work and keep working and eventually get support from the government.
(The National Center for Sexual Education is offering this support)."
"'Transformismo' (drag performance) is well
accepted by the majority of the Cuban population."
"There is indeed a change in the way people view
homosexuality, but this does not mean the end of discrimination and homophobia.
The population is just more tolerant of lesbians and homosexuals."
"Lesbians and gays do not consider fighting for
the right to marriage, because that institution in Cuba does not have the same
value that it has in other countries. Unmarried and married people enjoy equal
rights."
In 2006, the state-run Cuban television began running
a serial soap opera titled La Otra Cara De La Luna (The Other Face of the Moon)
in which a married man "discovers himself" through a sexual
relationship with a male friend.
In 2012, Adela Hernandez became the first known
transgender person to hold public office in Cuba, winning election as a
delegate to the City Council of Caibarien in the central province of Villa
Clara.
Fidel
Castro takes responsibility
In his autobiography My Life, Fidel Castro criticized
the machismo culture of Cuba and urged for the acceptance of homosexuality. He
made several speeches to the public regarding discrimination against
homosexuals.
In a 2010 interview with Mexican newspaper La Jornada,
Castro called the persecution of homosexuals while he was in power "a
great injustice, great injustice!" Taking responsibility for the
persecution, he said, "If anyone is responsible, it's me. We had so
many and such terrible problems, problems of life or death. In those moments, I
was not able to deal with that matter [of homosexuals]. I found myself
immersed, principally, in the Crisis of October, in the war, in policy
questions." Castro personally said that the negative treatment of gays in
Cuba arose out of the country's pre-revolutionary attitudes toward
homosexuality.
Legality
of same-sex sexual activity
Private, non-commercial sexual relations between
same-sex consenting adults 16 and over have been legal in Cuba since 1979.
Recognition
of same-sex relationships
The Cuban Constitution does not ban same-sex marriage.
Until 2019, Article 36 contained language defining marriage as between a man
and a woman. This was repealed in a February 2019 referendum. The current
Constitution states that "marriage is a social and legal institution. It is based on free will and equality of rights, obligations and legal capacity
of the spouses." Nonetheless, statutory laws still contain prohibitions on
same-sex marriage, and the country does not recognize civil unions or any other
kind of partnership.
A major public campaign by LGBT groups began in late
2017 to amend the Constitution to allow same-sex marriage.[39] In July 2018,
the National Assembly approved a new draft constitution which recognized
same-sex marriage, though the proposal would need to go to a referendum on 24
February 2019. In September 2018, President Miguel Díaz-Canel expressed his
support for same-sex marriage.
Media outlets have spoken of a "revolution within
a revolution" or of a "rainbow revolution", and have pointed out
how quickly the landscape for LGBT rights has changed, as just a few decades
back Cuba imprisoned gay men in labor camps.
On 18 December 2018, it was announced that the National
Assembly had removed the language from the draft. This means that same-sex
marriage would be neither prohibited nor regulated by the new Cuban
Constitution. The National Assembly and Mariela Castro have stated that
same-sex marriage will be legalized through a Family Code amendment instead. In
March 2019, the Government began popular consultations to look into legalizing
same-sex marriage in the Family Code.
Discrimination
protections
Employment discrimination on account of sexual
orientation is prohibited by law. The Labor Code (Código de Trabajo) does not
cover gender identity, and LGBT discrimination in other sectors of society –
such as education, housing and public accommodations – is not addressed by the
law. Mariela Castro, director of the National Center for Sex Education, had
also sought to ban employment discrimination on the basis of gender identity,
HIV status and disability, but this was rejected.
In July 2018, a same-sex couple, Brian Canelles and
Arián Abreu, were kicked out of a Havana bar after taking a selfie of
themselves kissing. A worker at the bar asked them to leave, saying: "The
bar isn't interested in the gay public. We don't want that reputation."
The case was widely criticized. Merely two days after the incident, Cuba's official
gazette published a decree outlining that any private business found to
discriminate against clients based on their gender or sexual orientation can be
fined 1,000 Cuban pesos (around 860 euros/1,000 U.S. dollars) and shut down.
The Cuban Constitution, amended in 2019, prohibits all
discrimination on the basis of gender, gender identity and sexual orientation,
among others. Article 42 reads as follows:
“All people are equal before the law, receive the same
protection and treatment from the authorities, and enjoy the same rights,
liberties, and opportunities, without any discrimination for reasons of sex,
gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ethnic origin, skin color,
religious belief, disability, national or territorial origin, or any other
personal condition or circumstance that implies a distinction injurious to
human dignity.”
Gender
identity and expression
Since June 2008, qualifying Cubans have been able to
have free sex reassignment surgeries.
Blood
donation
Individuals seeking to donate blood must be in good
health, have a regular pulse and must not have had a viral injection (catarrh
or pharyngitis) within the past 7 days. Men who have sex with men are not
explicitly banned from donating.
Social
conditions
Freedom
of association
According to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Trans and Intersex Association and other sources, Cuba's only gay and lesbian
civil rights organization, the Cuban Association of Gays and Lesbians, was
formed in 1994 by eighteen people but was effectively shut down and its members
arrested in 1997.
Since 2008, the National Center of Sex Education has
sponsored some LGBT festivals and pride events.
In 2013, a week of drag shows, colourful marches, and
social and cultural events in Havana culminated with celebrations of the
International Day Against Homophobia.[60] Events have been held every year
since.
Nosotros
también amamos
In 2015, the project Nosotros también amamos (We love
too) which advocates for the legalisation of same-sex marriage, was funded by
the human rights organisations Corriente Martiana (Martian Current), Fundación
Cubana por los Derechos de la comunidad de Lesbianas, Gay, Bisexuales, Trans e
Intersex (LGBTI) (Cuban Foundation of Rights of the cummunity of Lesbizns, Gay,
Bisexuals, Trans, and Intersex (LGBTI)) and the gay project SHUI TUIX.
In June 2016, Babel, a socio-cultural Cuban LGBT
project, declared: "All people are equal in dignity and rights beyond what
differentiates us as race, skin color, sex, national origin, political,
religious, ideological or sexual preferences, amongst other things"
Here is a piece from good friend Dan Duran from
Positively Aware
LIFE
WITH HIV IN CUBA
From quarantine camps to medical accomplishments
It’s a tiny island 90 miles off the coast of Florida,
easily dismissed by many as a communist country with a depressed economy. Like
many other places in the world, HIV remains a serious concern. But what some
people don’t know is that Cuba has achieved a milestone in HIV prevention that has
made the world stand up and take note.
Early in the AIDS epidemic, Cuba was notorious for its
mandatory HIV quarantine program. Seventeen facilities dotted the island,
housing anyone who tested HIV-positive. The largest facility was the sanatorium
at Santiago de las Vegas, located just outside of Havana.
From 1986 to 1993, Santiago de las Vegas segregated
people living with HIV from the general population, an action that was highly
politicized by the rest of the world in a time when HIV and AIDS fear was most
rampant. Forced quarantine ended in 1993, but for years afterward, the
government continued to maintain strict control over anyone living with HIV.
Those that were permitted to live outside of the camps had to disclose their
sexual partners and encounters had to be reported to the government. On the
world stage, Cuba’s approach towards those living with HIV only served to
further tarnish its already diminished reputation throughout the world.
Fast forward more than 20 years later and Cuba is
suddenly leading in breakthrough studies and most recently was the first
country to receive what can be considered as a global seal of approval—the
World Health Organization (WHO) validation —for essentially eliminating
transmission of HIV from a mother to her baby. By 2014, more than 40 countries,
including the United States, Canada, Anguilla, and Barbados, were testing and
treating pregnant women in programs and studies to achieve the same, but Cuba
was the first to go through the WHO monitoring program. The program requires
data on transmission for a period of at least two years as well as onsite
visits by WHO members who examine care in all parts of the country, including
even the most remote and underserved parts of a country.
Cuba was able to achieve this accomplishment mainly
because its health care system is so highly regulated. HIV tests are
commonplace during routine doctor visits and patients who are HIV-positive are
put on a treatment regimen and monitored. When a Cuban national goes to see
their doctor, they will eventually, at some point, have an HIV test, regardless
if they ask for one or not. Women who become pregnant and are HIV-positive are
referred to a clinic with a higher level of expertise in HIV, where they will
be monitored closely and started on oral antiretroviral treatment, which has
shown to reduce transmission to newborns to less than 2%.
At approximately 38 weeks into pregnancy, at the
discretion of the doctor and the woman, the mother gives birth via cesarean
section, another method proven to reduce transmission of HIV, instead of
through the birth canal.* Women are also instructed not to breastfeed their
newborns. Additionally, the infant receives antiretroviral treatment for up to
six weeks after birth.
The United States has achieved the elimination target
at a national level as the rate of transmission of HIV through pregnancy and
childbirth is below the two percent mark, which meets the standards of WHO. The
problem is that criteria for validation must be met in an equal manner, even in
subgroups of the lowest performing areas, and in the United States, the rates
of HIV transmission to infants are higher in poor and underserved areas, and
communities of color.
Things have dramatically changed for those living with
HIV in Cuba since the days of the quarantine. Over the past four years,
according to research documented on the government’s official websites, new
infections of HIV have been maintained at the same level, and have neither
declined nor risen. With regards to the number of new infections, when compared
to the small population of the island, the numbers are low. Of every 10 new
infections, eight are men, and of those, 88.6% are men who have sex with men,
which is the group most at risk.
Beyond the free medical treatment and resources
provided by the government, various organizations offer assistance and support.
Linea de Apoyo (“helpline” in English) is an organization made up of
volunteers, which is funded by Fondo Mundial (known in English as The Global
Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria) and ON USIDA (UNAIDS). Those
organizations all come under the umbrella of the government’s Plan Estratégico
Nacional (PEN, “national strategy plan” in English), which is now the law,
created in response to the HIV epidemic. PEN has been approved through 2018. It
was developed in cooperation with the public and Cuba’s Ministry of Public
Health. Through PEN, the government pays 100% of all HIV services, including
medications and lab work.
Beyond medical care and services, those living with
HIV in Cuba are given supplementary rations of food. Cuban nationals receive
rations of food each month as mandated by the government. It typically is very
little, and includes rice, beans, and a very small amount of meat. Those living
with HIV are put on a special diet plan that includes three bags of powdered
milk, six pounds of fish, thirty eggs, and two pounds of beef. The additional
food is considered to be needed by someone on antiretroviral medications.
Cuba still faces stigma because of its form of
government and its history since its revolution, but the country has
drastically changed in the past decade since Raúl Castro took power. More
rights have been granted to its citizens, including the right to travel outside
of Cuba. LGBT advancements have also taken place within the island nation, and
now with improved relations with the United States, there may be better days to
come for the Cuban people. The country is still under a dictatorship and
although treatment and care for those living with HIV is more civilized than it
was in the past, people there are still being controlled. But under that
control, fortunately, those living with the virus are generally living a normal
life and receiving proper medical care. The country as a whole is working towards
lowering and perhaps one day ending HIV transmission in Cuba.
@mrdavidduran
Duran’s article can be found here
