Inter Press Service - August 21, 2003
Dalia Acosta

The daily Juventud Rebelde -- the second highest circulation newspaper in this Caribbean island nation of 11.2 million -- surprised its readers early this month by publishing the story of parents who are suffering terrible regret over having rejected their gay son.

"My first reaction was to deny it," said the father. "I couldn't believe it. Then I got really mad. I had raised my son to be 'macho', and I have always rejected that kind of people. I felt let down and ashamed. What would people think of me!"

The story, published by journalist Aracelys Bedevia, had an ending that is all too common in Cuba: the father rejected the son, telling him he would rather see him dead than gay. "He left. I don't know where he went. We haven't seen him for almost a year," said the father.

The article came on the heels of the publication of a study, "Homosexuality in Cuba: The Price of Being Different", by the university magazine Alma Mater in June.

Homosexuality has been a taboo subject for the government- controlled media under the socialist regime of Fidel Castro.

The question has only been mentioned in articles on HIV/AIDS or other health issues, and never before had a report been published that defended the right of gays and lesbians to be different, and that saw homosexuality as just another sexual orientation.

"Normal?...They've gone crazy," 17-year-old Félix González remarked to IPS when asked about the article in Juventud Rebelde. But he added that in his school "everyone read the report."

González, who is going to school to become a teacher and will soon be standing in front of a classroom, refused to accept the possibility that feeling a sexual preference for people of one's own sex could be "normal."

"The macho (male) has to be macho," he said.

Armando López, a craftsman who decided to divorce his wife years ago and come out of the closet, said "I hope that what we are seeing is a real opening, and that this isn't just an isolated episode."

López pointed out that in the early 1990s, Juventud Rebelde also published a series of articles on prostitution in Cuba which apparently lifted the censorship surrounding the issue, but that it once again sank back into the "zone of silence".

"There has been no follow-up on that issue, and prostitution is still around, even in new forms and tendencies that were not seen at that time," he added. "The discussion of the question of homosexuality should not be a temporary thing, but the result of a policy."

López acknowledged, however, that it would not be easy. "We aren't talking about a social problem, but most people do see us as a problem, as freaks. If one of us is ever praised or recognised for anything, he is seen as just an exception."

There are no known organisations of gays or lesbians in Cuba, and no movements that defend the rights of homosexuals, who mainly choose to remain in the closet.

Although there have been isolated cases of symbolic commitment ceremonies between people of the same sex, no one in Cuba is demanding the legalisation of same-sex marriages, or the right to adopt or undergo assisted fertilisation in the case of lesbians, a method that is reserved for heterosexual couples.

The last discriminatory provisions targetting homosexuals were removed from Cuba's penal code when it was reformed in 1997.

However, homophobia remains widespread in Cuba, where "machismo" is a predominant feature of mainstream culture.

Mariela Castro, director of the governmental National Centre for Sex Education, said Cuba's homosexual community should take advantage of the incipient climate of tolerance that began to emerge in the 1990s to fight for their rights.

Castro, one of the few government functionaries who takes an open stance in defence of the rights of gays and lesbians, said more explicit policies are needed to crack down on "any expression of discrimination based on sexual orientation."

Recent academic studies on homosexuality in Cuba are another sign of a new openness, because the question was not addressed by scientific or social scientific research in the past.

Most of the studies have been produced in the context of the national programme on prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and have been aimed at gaining an understanding of sexual behaviour and at the possibility of modifying high-risk behaviour.

According to public health statistics, 4,699 cases of HIV/AIDS were reported in Cuba between 1986 and last April. Of that total, 1,063 have died.

Around 78 percent of the people living with HIV in Cuba are men, most of whom have had sex with other men.

A few studies have also delved into questions like the role homophobia plays in the social construction of the concept of masculinity or violence among gay couples.

A study carried out by medical students at the University of Pinar del Rio, 140 kms from Havana, found that prejudice against homosexuals ran strong in medical schools.

"The discrimination and prejudice towards homosexuals that still reigns among future health professionals is surprising," psychologist Geydi Díaz, the author of the study, told IPS. (END/IPS/LA/CA/HD/PR/TRA-SO SW/DA/DM/03)

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