A small but dedicated group organized by Cuba’s LGBT Rights Observatory marched down the main street in Havana to commemorate Gay Pride Day. This stroll (a “march” would have required a police permit) was not sponsored by the country’s official LGBT organization, which is under the control of Castro’s daughter, Mariela Castro.
Mariela has stated that pride parades are not needed in Cuba since gay citizens have rights and any such semblance would be considered a protest. Hmmm. Who appointed her dictator? Oh, that’s right. Her Dad. Imagine we lacked pride parades. We miss all the hot shows like this!
Police were still present during the independent demonstration, but no incidents have been reported. Some gay rights activists outside of Cuba are critical of how “independent” the march was, however, citing that perceived freedom of expression granted by Cuban government is just another form of propaganda.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
alan Balehead
gays were put into prison camps for cures in Cuba…good for them…
Humberto Capiro
According to the World Policy Institute (2003), the Cuban government prohibits LGBT organizations and publications, gay pride marches and gay clubs.[14] All officially sanctioned clubs and meeting places are required to be heterosexual. The only gay and lesbian civil rights organization, the Cuban Association of Gays and Lesbians, which formed in 1994, was closed in 1997 and its members were taken into custody.[15] Private gay parties, named for their price of admission, “10 Pesos”, exist but are often raided. In 1997, Agencia de Prensa Independiente de Cuba (the Cuban Independent Press Agency) reported, that Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar and French designer Jean Paul Gaultier were among several hundred people detained in a raid on Havana’s most popular gay discothèque, El Periquiton.[16]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Cuba
Humberto Capiro
Mauvaise Conduite or Improper Conduct is the title of a 1984 documentary film directed by Néstor Almendros and Orlando Jiménez Leal. The documentary interviews Cuban refugees to explore the Cuban government’s imprisonment of homosexuals, political dissidents, and Jehovah’s Witnesses into concentration camps under its policy of Military Units to Aid Protection. The documentary was produced with the support of French television Antenne 2 and won the Best Documentary Audience Award at the 1984 San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.
Conducta Impropria – Improper Conduct (Part 5) – I JUST LOVEEE “FIFI” IN THIS DOCUMENTARY! SHE IS A SURVIVOR! AND OF COURSE CUBAN WRITER REINALDO ARENAS (who’s life was made into the film “Before Night Falls” starring Javier Bardem)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0VT4cSm4n8&feature=related
Rodrigo
The Miami Herald will criticize anything that happens in Cuba that doesnt benefit the Cuban Mafia in Miami.
Rodrigo
@Humberto, why do you cite such old information? Its 2011, enterate..
SteveC
I ignore criticism of Cuba from US based Cuban groups – they are so blinkered in their thinking that they criticise ANYTHING that has Castro’s name associated with it.
Cuba has a dark history when it comess to its treatment of LGBT people.
As does the US.
Cuba has changed far faster, for the better, than the US has. Cuba is opening up whereas the reverse is true in the US where a LOT of our freedoms have been removed in the name of ‘defence’.
And in Cuba – a country FAR less wealthy than the US – you will not be thrown out of a hospital onto the street if you cannot afford medical treatment. Like most civilised countries Cuba regards healthcare as a human right – not an opportunity to make a profit from people’s suffering like in the US.
Sebastian
Having travelled to Cuba 40 times plus, I have seen alot of progress in the Cuban mentality towards the GLBT community. Mariela Castro is a strong defender of GLBT rights and freedoms. The US Cuban community is uneducated and ill informed when it comes to Cuba. (the older generation hasn’t been to Cuba in over 40 years and the new generation has never stepped foot in Cuba) Cuba is in a state of change and for the better! The fearlessness these “strollers” have is commendable, but then again, homosexuality, as Fidel himself has aknowleded, is no longer perceived as a mental illness, a choice, or a deviancy. Fidel, has himself acknowledged he was wrong. Change is comming to Cuba for all the better. Happy pride la Ciudad de la Habana!
Humberto Capiro
Dude, this is all proven information! Youre in DENIAL about the CASTROFASCISTS!
Humberto Capiro
@Rodrigo: I think you just dont have a response!Can you prove, cite a magazine or legal gay organization not affiliated with the Cuban Goverment? and please put links!
Humberto Capiro
@Rodrigo: I live in Venice Beach, California! Not in Miami!
Humberto Capiro
Typical FASCIST statement by Mariela Castro that gays dont need Gay Pride parades because they are “protests”? Of course FASCISTS GOVERMENTS are always RIGHT and FAIR!
“But the event was clearly designed to highlight differences with the “official” LGBT groups backed by the first daughter, who has argued that Gay Pride parades are “protests” not needed in Cuba because the country’s laws protect gay rights.
The stroll also highlighted the growing activism of varied independent groups – gays, blacks and farmers, among others – seeking a stronger voice in the nation’s affairs as the communist government tries to overhaul a stumbling economy.”
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/06/28/2080172/gay-cubans-stroll-for-rights.html
Sebastian
@Humberto Capiro … before you voice your opinion on Mariela Castro, make sure to get your facts straight! Just because Queerty said she said, doesn’t make it her words. Mariela “strolled” the streets of La Ciudad de la Habana to get transgendered rights reconized in Cuba. They now, because of Mariela, recognize and fully pay for the transgendered operations for those who choose to undergo the full operation and recognize, after the operation, the female gender of the person. When was the last time you were in Cuba, or have you ever been to Cuba? Misinformation is quite common in the American Cuban dissidents! So get your facts straight before you call on the Castrofacists! Because that makes you an anti-Cuban and is not helping the cause! Fight for the lifting of the Cuban embargo and then and only then will your words matter. Because, unless you know how and when Mariela ever said those words, STFU! This is comming from a Cuban Miami news source….great facts you guys have….they even go back to 1963 when Fidel held oposition to homosexuality as a deviancy in life. He has since then retracted his word sand beleives homosexuality as a natural phenomenem! But you’ll never see that in a Cuban American news source! so again STFU! Go to Cuba and see, hear and learn for yourself! Oh if you are american…you can’t go to Cuba. Good, They don’t need biggots like you…Y
Sebastian
http://www.towleroad.com/2009/05/mariela-castro-leads-gay-rights-conga-line-in-havana-.html
Mariela Castro 2009 La Ciudad de la Habana; ‘We’re calling on the Cuban people to participate … so that the revolution can be deeper and include all the needs of the human being,’ said Mariela Castro…”
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2009/05/mariela-castro-leads-gay-rights-conga-line-in-havana-.html#ixzz1QpfNXF4T