Castro champions gay rights in Cuba

[Mika]

Castro champions gay rights in Cuba
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7314845.stm

There is a Castro who is fighting to introduce radical changes in Cuba.

Not the new president, Raul, although he has promised to push through "structural and conceptual" changes to this communist island in the Caribbean.

It is Raul's daughter, Mariela Castro.

As head of the government-funded National Centre for Sex Education, she is trying to change people's attitudes towards minority groups in the community.

She is currently attempting to get the Cuban National Assembly to adopt what would be among the most liberal gay and transsexual rights law in Latin America.

The proposed legislation would recognise same-sex unions, along with inheritance rights. It would also give transsexuals the right to free sex-change operations and allow them to switch the gender on their ID cards, with or without surgery.

There are limits: adoption is not included in the bill and neither is the word marriage.

"A lot of homosexual couples asked me to not risk delaying getting the law passed by insisting on the word marriage," Mariela Castro said.

In the early years of the revolution much of the world was homophobic. It was the same here in Cuba and led to acts which I consider unjust
Mariela Castro
"In Cuba marriage is not as important as the family and at least this way we can guarantee the personal and inheritance rights of homosexuals and transsexuals."

She says that her father is supportive of her work, although he advises her to move slowly.

"I've seen changes in my father since I was a child. I saw him as macho and homophobic. But as I have grown and changed as a person, so I have seen him change."

Mariela's mother, the late Vilma Espin, was an internationally recognised champion of women's rights.

For Mariela, it is the rights of homosexuals and transsexuals that need fighting for.

Counselling

Once a week, a group of transsexuals gathers for a support session at the old Havana mansion which houses Mariela's Sex Education Centre.

Their ages range from late teens to mid-40s. All are dressed as women; some have had sex-change operations.
A state-funded psychiatrist offers counselling, support and health education.

"Transsexuals have always faced a degree of injustice," said Libia, who trained as a hairdresser after attending sessions at the centre.

"Here we get a lot of respect. This institution has helped raise our self-esteem."

Past repression

Today Cuba has a vibrant but generally discreet gay scene. There is a popular gay beach in Playas del Este just a short drive from Havana.

In the capital itself there are no openly gay bars, but there is a weekly nightclub complete with floor show.

The venue also hosts a comedy club one night, a cabaret another.

But according to the manager, who asked not to be named or for the club to be identified, it is the gay evening that is always the best attended.

The event is perfectly legal but it is not advertised, relying instead on word of mouth. Given Cuba's past treatment of homosexuals, most people here prefer to remain anonymous.

In the early days of the revolution many homosexuals were sent to forced labour camps for re-education and rehabilitation.

The camps did not last long but still gays were often denied certain jobs as "ideological deviants".

In the 1980s, there were orchestrated mass rallies denouncing homosexuals.

Ingrained prejudices

Sex between consenting adults of the same gender was legalised about 15 years ago, but police harassment and raids on gay gatherings continued until very recently.

"In the early years of the revolution much of the world was homophobic. It was the same here in Cuba and led to acts which I consider unjust," said Mariela Castro.

"What I see now is that both Cuban society and the government have realised that these were mistakes. There is also the desire to take initiatives which would prevent such things happening again."

But it remains an uphill struggle. Old prejudices remain deeply ingrained, particularly amongst the older generation.

"It's like an illness or perhaps a character defect," one man explained, asking not to be identified.

Others though are more tolerant. Talking to people in the street, many said that they disapproved of homosexuals but felt that people should be free to live their own lives.

There is still no guarantee that when the National Assembly convenes later this year, under the watchful eye of Raul Castro, it will approve Mariela's gay rights bill.

If it does, though, this would mark a revolutionary change in Cuba's sexual politics.

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[Adamocrat]

1. Awestruck

I was raised in South Florida, and I was raised to hate Castro. I'm very aware that his regime treated PWAs horribly, but I never thought I'd see the day that Cuba was more advanced than the United States on my issues. I am awestruck.

[Billy Burnett]

2. We've been fed a steady stream of BS about Cuba.

Especially in Floriduh.

[bjorkfan]

4. Um, "many homosexuals were sent to forced labour camps"....

Is there a rule here that Muslims and Communists are exempt from progressive ideals? Muslims don't have to support reproductive rights and Communists don't have to support gay rights?

[Moloch]

3. Where was Raul....

When gay people were being put into concentration camps?

[booley]

5. where was the US?

Where was anyone?

The point is that Cuba has changed. And it seems that Mariela Castro acknowledges that gay people were treated unfairly.

How can we progress if we won't even give people a chance to change for the better?

[Mika]

6. Thanks for the clarity.

All across America gays have been jailed, beaten, raped, etc etc. Its still going on today. This deserves equal condemnation. But Cuba is making leaps and bounds in civil liberties in this arena now.

Many anti Cuba propagandists equate Cuba's AIDS sanatoria with "concentration camps".

Keep in mind that Cuba was facing an (at the time) unknown sexually transmitted epidemic (thought to have brought to Cuba by troops serving in Angola) that could have decimated not only the population but overwhelmed their national health care system. During this period Preznit Saint Ron Reagan refused to even say "AIDS" or acknowledge the disease, letting people die and doing almost nothing to reduce/prevent infection, maintaining that AIDS was a "gay" disease.

During that time Cuba went on a different path. Clinical research, treatment, education, prevention. To save lives, gay and straight.

This article might be of interest ..

Cuba's AIDS patient #1 dies
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/011.html


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on edit: Just wanted to add that Cuba has the lowest AIDS infection rate in the western hemisphere. Not because of restrictions or crackdowns, but because of school based education, a national awareness campaign, and readily available free condoms.

[booley]

7. Well lets be clear

Cuba has a spotty record when it comes to treatment of gay people. Gay people were put in concentration camps at one point and long before AIDS. And this antipathy has nothing to do with Castro. It's endemic to the region and the culture (I mean look at Jamaica)

We shouldn't forget that. But my point was no country has a perfect record and if we get hung up on every past injustice to the point where actual progress gets impeded, then how can these problems ever get fixed?

We can't go back and undo all the injustices that have occurred. But we can work to make sure they aren't repeated.

[Mika]

8. I agree. Mostly.

I really think that the "concentration camps" reference is over the top. Please cite some reliable sources.

I've lived there. Worked there. Taught and learned there. I have relatives living there now. I am very familiar with Cuba.

Thanks.

[booley]

14. Is labor camp better?

Remember, a concentration camp isn't the same as a death camp. we've had concentration camps in this country.

And I hate to sound coy but people generally aren't aware when these things happen in their country.

As for sources, I would say wiki..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Cuba

But if that's isn't reliable to you then google UMAP

Cuba's stand now does not mean that UMAP didn't happen. Of course, that UMAP happened doesn't mean that CUBA hasn't changed in this regard for the better. One does not cancel out the other.

[Mika]

15. WIKI isn't a source regarding Cuba. Here's why.

http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y06/may06/10e4.htm

Scroll down to..

War of words: website can't define Cuba

What's a neutral point of view? The Cuba entry in the online reference site Wikipedia shows just how difficult it is for the volunteer-run website to tackle politically charged subjects.

By Pablo Bachelet, [e-mail]. Posted on Wed, May. 03, 2006.

WASHINGTON - One editor complained that Havana sympathizers were transforming a scholarly enterprise into ''their own private Fidel Castro fan page.'' A user was tossed out after threatening to sue another for libel.

The fuss is over the Cuba entry in Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia created, edited and administered entirely by volunteers with the altruistic purpose of becoming a Web-based knowledge repository for humanity.

But the Cuba entry, like those on President Bush and abortion, has been snared in intense political divisions over everything from the impact of U.S. sanctions on the communist-ruled island to whether it should have a separate section on its human rights record. Russia and North Korea do not.

There have been so many dueling edits -- 30 entries on April 27 alone -- that the article has been placed off-limits to first-time or unregistered users. The article has notices alerting readers that the neutrality of four sections is under dispute.

A central tenet of Wikipedia is that articles must be written in a neutral point of view. But, as the debate on the talk page attached to the Cuba article demonstrates, neutrality is often in the eye of the beholder.

The debate over Cuba turned intense after Adam Carr, who identifies himself as having a Ph.D. in history from the University of Melbourne in Australia and a gay rights activist, introduced this sentence high in the article: "Cuba is a socialist republic, in which the Communist Party of Cuba is the sole legal political party, and is the only state in the western hemisphere that is not a democracy.''

SPIRITED DEBATE

This prompted responses that went from scholarly citations of political scientists with definitions of democracy, to accusations of not-so-hidden political agendas.

Bruce Hallman wrote that calling Cuba undemocratic is a ''logical fallacy'' because it applies ''capitalistic values'' in the context of a socialist society. 'Might it be possible to write the article without using the word 'democracy' at all?'' he suggested.

''Sorry, comrade, no dice,'' answered Carr, one of the few writers who posts a description of himself. "These comments show quite clearly that you are a communist, or at least someone who actively supports the Castro dictatorship, not just . . . someone who is naïve about the realities of Cuba.''

With neither side giving in, on April 15 a ''mediation cabal'' -- an informal mediator -- joined the discussion. The cabal suggested citing reputable sources to back the Cuba-is-not-a-democracy sentence.

''If we need a citation that Cuba is not a democracy, then maybe we need citation that Cuba is in Latin America,'' retorts CJK, another user.

''Cuba is a dictatorship, plain and simple,'' says Carr, calling Castro's foreign supporters "gullible idiots.''

Failing to produce an agreement, the cabal departed after complaining that several editors were being rude.

Others argued that if the article discusses human rights in Cuba, then it should also point out U.S. human rights abuses. ''We will not be distracted by the well-known communist diversionary tactic of playing bogus moral equivalence games,'' Carr responded.

Scott Grayban, a talk page writer who claims to be a U.S. Air Force veteran, calls Carr ''nothing more than a pro-Bush hate-Cuba type person'' and in a separate e-mail threatened to sue Carr for libel. An administrator promptly banned Grayban for life from editing Wikipedia.

Other users also have been banned, including ''Comandante,'' who has changed the Cuba article more than 700 times. Another participant wrote that Comandante's Internet address suggests he lives in Cuba.

POPULAR SITE

A few years ago, online discussions of this sort would have gone unnoticed. But Wikipedia is now the 17th-most-visited site in the world, according to Alexa Internet, a Web-ranking outfit owned by Amazon.com.

Created by Web entrepreneur Jimmy Wales, who today heads the foundation that oversees the site, Wikipedia is an example of ''social computing'' -- the ability of users to create their own content without relying on the filters of newspaper or hard-copy encyclopedia editors.

Wikipedia has had some stumbles. A hoax entry wrongly implicated journalist John Seigenthaler in the JFK assassination. Several U.S. congressional staffers have been caught altering their bosses' entries.

There are now 900 volunteer administrators patrolling the site to keep troublemakers at bay, as well as formal arbitration mechanisms.

Most articles are uncontroversial, says Kat Walsh, an administrator for Wikipedia. But ''where people are out fighting in the real world, they're going to have differences of opinion on Wikipedia as well,'' she said.

I googled UMAP, here's the only Cuba related link on the 1st page - its from nocastro.com :eyes: an "exile" on the US "transition plan" payroll..

UMAP: CASTRO’S GENOCIDE PLAN
http://www.nocastro.com/archives/umapgenoc.htm


If you are using these as sources, then you are grossly misinformed.

Do you have any more citations of the so called "concentration camps" in Cuba?



Been there, seen it. No "concentration camps" there.



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[booley]

17. Unfortunately that's a straw man

....Since I said in the post you are responding too that While I got my initial research from Wiki, one didn't have to take Wiki's word for it. How one feels about Wiki was never the point.

In fact, Wiki can be seen as a clearing house for information.

So to refute that Cuba has a rather anti-gay past, one cannot do so by attacking Wiki but by refuting the sources they used. This would include people ranging from Peter Tactchell to Mariella Castro herself.

This would have been simple, actually. Show that Cuba didn't' arrest people for being gay and in the case of the UMAP, providing evidence that shows either the program did not exist or that gay people weren't victims of it. You did neither.

Instead you tried to make Wiki unreliable all though all you really did was show an opinion piece and all that really did was show the sausage making behind a consensus approach taken by Wiki. Of course people can come in and edit an entry to fit their personal views. But those views eventually get weeded out. The author then cherry picked comments, taking the most extreme (which ironicly, anyoen can add as well) and ignoring that this is also part of the verifying process.

And again, regardless of how one feels about Wiki, I used it as a starting point for finding sources. which is probably why I now feel somewhat insulted when you say...

"If you are using these as sources, then you are grossly misinformed."

Except it's quite obvious you didn't even bother looking at the sources Wiki cites. And if you did google for more information as I suggested, you obviously did not read more then one or two entries down.

I mean, I didn't cite nor reference no mention Nocatsro.com and how dare you try to muddy the waters by implying I did.

At this point you are probably no longer listening any more then previous poster (damkira) from before probably did (remember? When you were Thanking me for my clarity?)

But in case i am wrong and you are, let me just sum it up.

What i said was the following? From all the historical data I can find, there was a UMAP program. Gays were arrested in CUBA (as they were also in the rest of the world at that time). The Caribbean and Communism at that time were homophobic. And Castro, being a product of that culture (the same way we all are products of our culture) would have reflected that in his policies. If the US has a history of antigay policies and putting people in concentration camps, why would Cuba be less likely to have similar history?

Can you point out any reason why what i said in the paragraph above is wrong? Factually or Logicly?

Don't forget, you had no problem with what i said when you thought I was agreeing with you. When you thought I was on "your side". And if I had seemed to have been on the anti-castro side, I have a feeling I would have gotten similar responses from them. But what good is that? It reduces any discussion to which side you are on. If one is anti-catsro, then Cuba can do nothing right. If one is pro-castro, then Cuba can do no wrong. But that's something we complain about conservatives doing. We should be smarter.

Yes, Cuba has a horrible human rights record, including anti-gay policies, which culminated in gays being arrested and sent to forced labor camp. But things are getting better.

One does not refute the other. We should not forget that gays were oppressed in Cuba nor fail to applaud advances in gay rights in Cuba when they do occur or recognize that progress has been made.

And I am sorry if I sound so harsh. But we need to stop making these kinds of bad arguments or turning a blind eye to things just because they are unpleasant. we should be reality based.

[Mika]

18. You're not being harsh at all, and your summation is good.

But, I did say "IF.. ".

I was just pointing out some observations on Wiki's Cuba pages (including some of the sourcing) being unreliable.

Googling just UMAP will get one nowhere aside from antiCastro sites. Adding +Cuba will yield more results.

An example..

1965 UMAP brigades: What they were, what they were not

Fidel stresses that the UMAP “were not internment units, nor were they punishment units; on the contrary, it was about morale, to give them a chance to work and help the country in those difficult circumstances. Besides, there were many who for religious reasons had the chance to help their homeland in another way by serving not in combat units but in work units.”

Fidel cut cane; children worked in the fields. Renowned Cubans such as musician and poet Pablo Milanés and Baptist pastor and MP Raúl Suárez worked in the UMAP.

The whole island was at hard at work building an independent existence, in economic soil deeply furrowed by the combines of colonialism and imperialism.

Fidel shut down the UMAP

Fidel Castro stated categorically about the UMAP, “I can tell you for sure that there was prejudice against homosexuals.”

On the island, the Cuban National Union of Artists and Writers (UNEAC) reportedly protested treatment of homosexuals working in UMAP, prompting Fidel to check it out for himself.

A Cuban who worked in a UMAP, interviewed by Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal in 1970-1971, related that Fidel slipped into a UMAP brigade one night and lay down in one of the hammocks. The interviewee said: the UMAP guards would sometimes cut the hammock cords with their sabers. “When one guard raised his saber he found himself staring at Fidel; he almost dropped dead. Fidel is the man of the unexpected visits.” (“In Cuba”)

A youth described as a “young Marxist revolutionary” told Cardenal that 100 young males from the Communist Youth were sent to the UMAP to report back about how they were treated. “It was a highly secret operation. Not even their families knew of this plan. Afterward the boys told what had happened. And they put an end to the UMAP.”

Closing the UMAP required further large-scale reorganization of agricultural work, the lifeblood of the economy.

One youth concluded to Cardenal, “e who were in the UMAP discovered that the Revolution and the UMAP were separable. And we said to ourselves: We won’t leave Cuba, we’ll stay and make what is bad not bad.” (Jon Hillson, blythe.org)

Fidel: ‘Overcoming legacy of chauvinism’


‘I am absolutely opposed to any form
of repression, contempt, scorn or
discrimination with regard to
homosexuals. It is a natural tendency
and human that must simply be
respected.’ —Fidel Castro, 1992


Fidel explained that during this period of early revolutionary history, “Concerning women, there was a strong prejudice, as strong as in the case of homosexuals. I’m not going to come up with excuses now, for I assume my share of the responsibility. I truly had other concepts regarding that issue.

“I am not going to deny that, at one point, male chauvinism also influenced our attitude toward homosexuality,” he said.

“We inherited male chauvinism and many other bad habits from the conquistadors. I would say that it corresponded to a given stage and is largely associated with that legacy of chauvinism.”

Fidel stressed, “Homosexuals were certainly discriminated against—more so in other countries—but it happened here too, and fortunately our people, who are far more cultured and learned now, have gradually left that prejudice behind.

“We have made a real advance—we can see it, especially in the young people, but we can’t say that sexual discrimination has been completely wiped out and we mustn’t lower our guard.”

Fidel said, “I must also tell you that there were—and there are—extremely outstanding personalities in the fields of culture and literature, famous names this country takes pride in, who were and still are homosexual.

“Today the people have acquired a general, rounded culture. I’m not going to say there is no male chauvinism, but now it’s not anywhere near the way it was back then, when that culture was so strong. With the passage of years and the growth of consciousness about all of this, we have gradually overcome problems and such prejudices have declined. But believe me, it was not easy.”

Fidel Castro concluded in 1992: “I am absolutely opposed to any form of repression, contempt, scorn or discrimination with regard to homosexuals. It is a natural tendency and human that must simply be respected.”

[Mika]

12. Cuba mobilized before first diagnosis

Cuba mobilized before first diagnosis

The Reagan administration tried to whip up world anger at Cuba’s handling of the AIDS epidemic. In reality, Cuba took an immediate, scientific and humane approach to people with AIDS.

In the U.S., AIDS was first diagnosed in 1981. By May 1983, simultaneous gay and lesbian protests of tens of thousands had to take to the streets in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, Chicago and Milwaukee under banners reading “Fighting for our lives!” to demand federal funds to battle AIDS, and for research, services and Social Security benefits.

A day later, activists organized a telephone blitz of the White House to protest government inaction and to demand funds. It was to date the largest number of calls to the Oval Office in a single day in its history. The president had still not publicly said the word AIDS, while theo-cons demonized the emerging health crisis as a “gay plague.”

By contrast, Cuba’s health care workers began preparations to defend the whole population from the AIDS epidemic two years before the first case was diagnosed on the island in 1985. Cuba spared no expense despite the chokehold of the U.S.-led blockade.

Cuba—unlike the U.S.—mobilized against AIDS, not against people with AIDS. Researchers Lourdes Arguelles and B. Ruby Rich observed in the autumn of 1987 that, “Cuba is unusual in publicizing the disease, not as a gay disease, but rather as a sexually transmitted disease regardless of specific sexual practice.”

Planning to protect population



After members of the Cuban Health Ministry took part in a workshop organized by the Pan-American Health Organization in August 1983, they immediately set up a national commission to research and create a plan of action to prevent AIDS in

Cuba. (Karen Wald, Guardian, Oct. 28, 1987)

The National Commission to Face AIDS Syndrome formed in 1983. (Denver Post, Feb. 10, 2003)

The commission immediately blocked the import of all blood products from countries in which the epidemic was already documented.

The commission recommended discarding more than 20,000 vials of imported blood, worth millions of dollars.

Getting rid of all imported blood products greatly burdened the Cuban health system and forced the country to ratchet up local production. However, this urgent action resulted in avoiding HIV transmission to almost all hemophiliacs and others who needed blood transfusions. (Financial Times, Feb. 16, 2003)

A multi-disciplinary team of doctors and researchers was assigned to work full time on AIDS. Political journalist Wald wrote, “Their first move was to prepare a diagnostic screening program based on concrete symptoms that could be seen in hospitals, such as repeated cases of pneumonia or Kaposi’s sarcoma type of cancer, which indicated possible AIDS. Hospitals were asked to give weekly reports on findings of these symptoms.”

Doctors tested more than 135,000 Cubans for HIV in 1983.
Science, not stigma



In 1985, a Cuban who had returned from abroad was the first in the country to be diagnosed with AIDS. The Cuban was one of 300,000 heroes of the revolution who helped defend the people of Mozambique—an African country impoverished by colonialism and battling the forces of imperialism.

In the U.S., Africa and Haiti were being scapegoated as the source of the epidemic, without any scientific proof. In Cuba, however, where many are of African descent because of the history of slavery, health officials did not stigmatize the African continent.

In an interview in Cuba International, circa 1987, Dr. Rodolfo Rodríguez, then the national director of epidemiology for the Cuban Ministry of Health, said that while some of the mass media at that time might have been trying to blame the African continent for AIDS, “It is known worldwide that it is the developed Western countries—Europe and the U.S.—that have the largest number of AIDS cases and the largest number of asymptomatic carriers.”

In the U.S., homosexuality was still against the law and viciously repressed. The right wing labeled AIDS a “gay disease.” This only drove the epidemic deeper into the population. So too did the criminalization of drug addiction and prostitution, both highly profitable industries in the U.S.

There was no known intravenous drug addiction in Cuba, and same-sex love was not against the law.

Cuban health workers tested all pregnant women, people with sexually transmitted diseases, and anyone who might have had sexual contact with someone who was HIV positive. Testing equipment was installed in blood bank centers. (Denver Post)

By the end of 1985, Wald wrote, the Cuban government had purchased, despite great expense, all the technical means to screen the island’s entire blood supply. “Cuba spent more than $3 million to buy the reactive agents and equipment, and to set up labs in blood banks and hygiene and epidemiology centers around the country.”

That year, the Cuban public health system allocated $2 million for the National HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Program, which focused on providing the first 750,000 diagnostic kits and centers. (MEDICC Review, Vol. II, No. 1, 2—2001)
Capitalism and contraception



The years of sex education that preceded the outbreak of the epidemic helped to create the basis for a more scientific and compassionate approach to people with AIDS.

However, when faced with a sexually transmissible epidemic like AIDS, Cuba had to overcome a particular capitalist legacy regarding safer-sex education and practices.

Dr. Celestino Álvarez Lajonchere, a gynecologist and ground-breaking sex educator in Cuba, reminded interviewers in 1988, “You know this country inherited a system in which the rural areas and small towns had little or no medical care before the revolution.”

He added that before the revolution, illegal abortions were common. They were most often performed by doctors, without anesthesia, in unsanitary conditions.

Álvarez Lajonchere explained: “At the triumph of the revolution, the majority of these abortion doctors left the country. There was no habit in the country of using contraceptives, and contraception did not even appear in the medical school curriculum. ... The private physicians at the time didn’t give contraceptive services to their patients because they could charge much more doing abortions.”

As a result, he said, “Since people didn’t have contraceptive habits, we encountered serious difficulties in the first years after the triumph of the revolution.”

While half of all Cuban doctors left the island and went to capitalist countries, 97 percent of the physicians in obstetrics and gynecology emigrated. As a result, Álvarez Lajonchere noted, overnight he became the oldest gynecologist/obstetrician in the country.

Álvarez Lajonchere said that, in addition, within months after the workers and peasants took state power, “ll of the professors at the medical school quit voluntarily, thinking mistakenly that the government could not replace them. The government accepted their resignations. It was a policy in the country, and still is, that if you really don’t want to live in this country under socialism you should leave. You can’t create a socialist society with people who are disaffected.

“So the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Public Health got together a course for new professors,” he continued, “people who could never have been professors before the revolution because of their low social class origins—they didn’t come from the upper middle classes.”

The medical school faculty was replaced with new professors. “We all left private practice and went to teach. It was an extraordinary advantage that we knew the conditions of medical practice in the country. I became chief of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the one and only medical school. The first thing I did was to put contraception into the medical school curriculum. There were never any restrictions about who could have access to contraceptives in this country: not by age, not by race, not by anything.”

Álvarez Lajonchere added, “Medical services from the very beginning have been free.” And the new medical teachers received a higher salary than the president. (International Journal of Health Services, Vol. 18, Number 2, 1988)

“The habit of using contraceptives,” Álvarez Lajonchere explained, “is a habit that takes time to build. For a population that was accustomed to having abortions, it was easier for them to go to the hospital and have an abortion.”

After the revolution, underground abortions in unsanitary conditions increased until 1965. “When we started to do all of them in hospitals, obviously deaths as a result of abortion disappeared.”

He added that the number of abortions began to decrease in 1974 as a result of mass education about sex and contraception.

Álvarez Lajonchere concluded: “Our current policy on population is the same policy that we’ve had from the first day of the revolution. It’s a policy of principle. A woman has the right to have the number of children she wants, and to have them when she wants. The government is obligated to assure that her right becomes a reality. So we educate people about all of the contraceptive methods. We include abortion, even though we don’t view it as a contraceptive method, so that people will know about it. We have never said that having a small family is good; we have never pressured people to reduce the birth rate.”

Next: Cuba directed war against AIDS, not people with AIDS.

To read more about Cuba, read parts 86-97 of Lavender & Red at workers.org

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[Judi Lynn]

9. Thought you might like to read an interview with Mariela Castro.

Mariela Castro with Cuban HIV poster:
“How do I show you I love you?”

Mariela Castro, MS
Director, National Center for Sex Education

By Gail A. Reed

Cuba’s National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX) brings together a multitude of professionals for academic courses through master’s level degrees, research, community work, social communication, counseling and sexual therapy. More broadly stated by its Director Mariela Castro, CENESEX’s mission is to contribute to “the development of a culture of sexuality that is full, pleasurable and responsible, as well as to promote the full exercise of sexual rights.” This is a tall order for any society, especially one with a history of machismo and prejudice against all but heterosexual orientation. MEDICC Review spoke with Mariela Castro about the experience of women and HIV infection in Cuba.

More:
http://www.medicc.org/publications/medicc_review/0406/mr-interview.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It should be recognized Mariela Castro has been involved in gay rights for years. A couple of years ago Cuba had the first government recognized gay marriage, Mariela Castro has been involved in work which has lead to Cuba's becoming the first country in Latin America to support, with public funds, of course, transgender medical support, operations, etc., and, as DU'ers have discussed in various times, in LBN, Cuba is the first country in the Western Hemisphere to have its own gay soap opera which is heavily watched, and discussed all over the country. That show has opened dialogue in public when it had been avoided in the past, and has a large viewership the last time I read anything about it.





Mariela Castro (R) and Colonel Alejandro Castro, children of Cuba's acting President Raul Castro, walk together before an event in honor of their mother Vilma Espin at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana June 19, 2007. Espin, sister-in-law of convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro and one of the most powerful women in Cuba's political leadership, died on Monday in Havana. She was 77. (CUBA) REUTERS/Pool

[Judi Lynn]

10. Here's more which might be useful:

When it comes to gay rights, is Cuba inching ahead of USA?
Posted 2/26/2007 7:18 PM ET

By DeWayne Wickham

HAVANA — Years before George W. Bush proclaimed his support for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages in the United States, the ideologically rigid government of Fidel Castro made a big move in the opposite direction.
It sanctioned the production and viewing of Strawberry and Chocolate, an Academy Award-nominated film about the awkward friendship between a straight man and a gay man — and the homophobia they both had to battle.

Since this movie debuted in theaters here in the mid-1990s, the Cuban government's intolerance of homosexuals has given way to a more egalitarian treatment of gays and lesbians.

The public persecution of homosexuals has declined sharply. Two years ago, Cuba had its first gay film festival. Last year, the highest-rated show on Cuba's state-run television was a soap opera in which a married man fell in love with another man. And now this country is on the verge of enacting a law that gives same-sex couples some form of legal status.

Ending bias

"We have to abolish any form of discrimination against those persons," said Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly. "We are trying to see how to do that, whether it should be to grant them the right to marry or to have same-sex unions."

Alarcon said he expects Cuba's communist government will soon enact a law to do one or the other. "We have to redefine the concept of marriage," he said. "Socialism should be a society that does not exclude anybody."

This awakening comes less than a year after President Bush renewed his call for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. "Our policies should aim to strengthen families, not undermine them, and changing the definition of marriage would undermine the family structure," Bush said in June.

More:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2007-02-26-opcom_x.htm

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I can't determine when the interview I posted with Mariela Castro was actually conducted, but I'm sure there's someone around who will confirm the fact DU'ers saw, read, posted, discussed an article in the last year or two about a gay marriage in Cuba, with comments from neighbors, family, etc.

If I see anything around on it, I'll post it later.

[Mika]

11. Is this the article you referred to?

Gays Wed In Cuba: The Second Revolution

JUNE 21, 2001. A few hours before floats, rainbow flags, and a sea of humanity filled Sao Paulo's central Avenida Paulista last Sunday for Latin America's biggest ever Pride Parade, Agence France Presse reported that, in Cuba, two gay male couples also made history by publicly holding the first gay wedding there.

Four local boys, Michel and Ángel, and Juanito and Alejandro, ranging in ages from 17 to 22, exchanged symbolic vows before their families and friends at a neighborhood recreation center in one of the poorest sections of San Miguel del Padrón, a working-class suburb southeast of Havana.

Dressed in white, with Ángel and Juanito as brides, the four declared themselves "very happy" and said they planned to honeymoon together at one of the modest camping sites the government runs for Cubans.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Great! I've seen this article. And this one was written in 1997, too. There have been

a lot of little steps taken steadily since 11 years ago, too!

Thank you so much for posting it, Mika! :hi:

[Mika]

13. WHO Cuba case study

Interesting report here..

APPROACHES TO THE MANAGEMENT OF HIV/AIDS IN CUBA
http://64.233.161.104/u/who?q=cache:tlVbAmc2ccAJ:www.who.int/hiv/pub/prev_care/en/cuba.pdf+cuba&hl=en&ie=UTF-8