Things are loco in Cuba! First the Catholic Church came out against the gay rights movement, which has largely been led by first daughter Mariela Castro. Now there are reports that police shut down today’s pride march, which would have been the nation’s first.
The unofficial march, organized with Florida’s Unity Coalition, was not sanctioned by Cuba’s National Center for Sex Education, which is headed by Mariela Castro, the daughter of President Raul Castro.
Activist Mario Jose Delgado announced the cancellation of the march moments before it was to start Wednesday at a park in Havana. He said two organizers who were to deliver a set of demands to the Justice Ministry were detained one day earlier. Delgado said he has no details of the arrests.
“The president of the Cuban League Against AIDS and the president of the Foundation LGTB Reinaldo Arenas in Memoriam have been arrested,” Delgado said. “They were to be here with our written demands but now we cannot carry out our activity.”
Some are also saying that police beat organizers, who planned to start the march in Don Quixote park. We’d laugh at the irony, but, frankly, it’s not funny.
rick
florida should stay out of cuba.
fredo777
You should stay out of Cuba.
Unless, of course, your name is Cuba (Gooding, Jr.). In which case you should stay out of my movie-going experience.
kevin57
Just when I thought Cuba was making progress…
An Other Greek
growing pains.
and not the wolfowitz kind.
the struggle is active.
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Charles J. Mueller
So sad. So much bigotry and hatred. My heart goes out to the victims of this outrage.
Humberto Capiro
Check out Cuba Gay Rights Documentray “Improper Conduct” which includes an interview of Reinaldo Arenas the cuban writer whose life was portrayed by Javier Bardem in Julina Schnabel’s film “Before Night Falls” where Bardem was nomimated for best actor. And for all those idiots that say “Stay out of Cuba”, you should
have a better response than that! When human rights are beign trampled on for almost 50 years WE ALL should be speak out.
Improper Conduct “Mauvaise Conduite” 1984
Best Documentary Audience Award at the 1984 San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.
Carlos
I’ve been to cuba and believe me there aint no one gayer than me. Don’t believe the propaganda. Like it says it was not sanctioned by the National center for sexual education, in Cuba this means a lot. Cuba has recently made sexual reassignment surgery part of its nationalized health plan and recently had a national convention against homophobia all sanctioned and attended and promoted by the government. this “parade” was antagonist to socialism in cuba. Like i said i’ve been to cuba and the vast majority of people including the LGBT community is for the revolution. I remember a taxi driver telling me the following when i visited “I’ve heard that in the states they tell you that if you speak up against the government it is the state that will repress you, the truth is when you go out into a corner and start screaming against the revolution it is your own neighbors that will stand up to you, we know were our interests lie.”