Gay culture in Havana, Cuba is a respite from the app-obsessed culture of the rest of the world since they’re not really up to the technology, and the gays seem to be more than OK with it.
The New York Times has a fascinating piece on the throwback gay culture of Havana, which seems like something out of NYC circa 1978 – in a good way:
Cuba has up to 4,000 active daily Grindr users, said Jennifer Foley Shields, a publicist for the app. But a recent series of Grindr check-ins here by this reporter revealed, on average, 11 online users in this city of two million (a population roughly equivalent to Houston’s).
Even in a five-star hotel along the Malecón with four-bar Wi-Fi reception, one typical check-in, after several false starts, required 14 minutes to open the app.
The experience is even more uphill for locals, who pay 2 Cuban convertible pesos per hour for internet use. (Cuban salaries, on average, 20 Cuban convertible pesos a month.) Apple users additionally, once their iPhone is unlocked, must pay middlemen to install apps, with several gay Cubans saying they were either too poor or too embarrassed to request an installation of Grindr or its ilk.
Though Grindr founder Joel Simkhai calls Cuba “a growth opportunity in a market dying for Grindr,” the locals don’t seem to be all that enthused about the possibility.
One bi guy has accounts on all the apps, but he seems pretty much over it:
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“I’m bisexual, because I prefer the unlimited. Why would anyone — bisexual, gay, whatever — want to be trapped as a photo, as an internet profile in an app? That’s a different kind of closet, a box. So boring.”
His friend Juan Carlos Godoy Torres agrees. He says that he didn’t fight for progress for gay rights in Cuba to be boxed in:
“I prefer the magic of the streets, someone who can trap me with his eyes, who can dance with me, who can touch my face. I want more than sex.”
It seems like the culture in more technologically advanced places is forever changed, but Havana is keeping it old school. Perhaps Havana will become the next great gay tourist destination – as long as the gays keep their iPhones in their hotel rooms.
Paco
There was something always exciting about meeting men while out and going home with them. The initial flirting and face to face conversations leading to that first touch or kiss was my favorite part. Nothing compares to the natural in-person human interaction that takes place to initiate mating.
I wonder how many app users have actually experienced app-free hookups that allowed them to use all of their senses and instincts in evaluating a person as a potential sexual partner.
Keep it old school, Cuba. It’s worth it.
rjmaquay
@Paco: Miss that.
Billy Budd
I like old school dating and hooking up. I am totally FOR it.
Stache
@Paco: Yeah, but you end up kissing allot more frogs with the old school way before finding your prince ie the guy with the right stats. However, I do see your point too.
redcarpet30
Oh no, just give it time. Capitalism has its eyes set on Cuba now that it finally has started to open up, it will be blanketed in cell reception, disposable phones, and some form of Grindr in the next 5 years. There is no profit in human connection.
da90027
I just miss the days when ANYONE had some social skills. It is insane to see people in a crowded bar not paying any attention to anything but their phone. It is insantiy…no eye contact or anything except these morons glued to their phone.
Doughosier
I’ve never used the Internet to meet guys. I need my personality. Also, I look a lot younger than I am and the first question online is how old. I don’t want to lie. No one asks that in person, at least not right away.
Mykaels
I am 37, I remember the days of yore of meeting guys without apps. I see both the good and the bad and to be honest, I miss the bar culture of the 90’s, but I do not miss hooking up the old fashioned way.
This myth of how two men who would mysteriously eye each other from across the room, as suddenly spot lights fell onto one another as they paso doble’d towards one another, eyes locked, in a dance of sexual innuendo that culminated into a night of absolute wanton passion! In reality, we said mostly the same shit to each other in person that we say on grindr.
enlightenone
@Paco: 🙂
johnjflan
I was in Havana in February and it is true there was very little Grindre action. The article glosses over that as a tourist almost every gay male Cubano I spoke with the couple times I went to club wanted payment of some kind. So maybe for Cubans there is old style cruising but for tourists visiting it’s a whole other experience.
dean089
Isn’t homosexuality still illegal in Cuba?
Poncho Sanchez
I don’t miss the old days of hooking up. Much prefer the web and phone apps, much easier to find quality, and attributes that attract me
AlanTuring
@Paco:
That´s how people actually flirt at Havana..a combination of a big city´s anonimacy -to our island standards-, no tech at all -forcing people to meet in the streets-, lack of intolerant tribes -there are no gang assholes trying to beat every gay at every corner-, tolerance of cubans -no matter what they tell you, cuban people is probably the most tolerant in Latam, they watch you kissing a men, they look away- and crime index low compared to other countries.
To this environment, I should add: they -young gay cubans not trading but engaging- like to talk, and get attention and feel good with the company. Besides: the light of sunset, no street ads, vintage cars, and the like.
You all should go there for a weekend at least.
AlanTuring
@Stache: You´re wrong…you don´t know who´s a frog or a prince.. It may happen that a frog can beat you down and fall in love with him
AlanTuring
There is a film….La Partida.., by a spanish producer with cuban actors, excellent actors:
http://www.videos.cubacineonline.com/peliculas-cubanas-gratis-y-completas/la-partida-2013
This film gives an idea how young gay people manage their lives in Cuba..Sorry, is not subtitled..but if you know spanish, it´s quite a thrill…
AlanTuring
@dean089: wtf? It´s completely legal…perhaps even more tolerance than USA… Again: You should go there and watch yourself
Karlis
“I prefer the magic of the streets, someone who can trap me with his eyes, who can dance with me, who can touch my face. I want more than sex.”
What a beautiful thought! I, too, am of an age where when I was coming up there was no Internet, no smartphones. The TV was black and white. There were only five or six channels (this was in Chicago). You had to physically get up and change the channels with a button on the TV set. (I’m sorry if this is making any younger readers’ heads explode.) What’s more, I would love for the guy in the picture with the towel around his waist to trap me with his eyes, dance with me and touch my face. Perhaps I will have to visit Cuba. 🙂
martinbakman
Without Grindr,
Repubs and Christians in the States would have to revert to svcking koqk on the edge of town on Saturday nights. What they call the good old days.
Billy Budd
Please watche the movie BEFORE NIGHT FALLS with the great Javier Bardem and Johnny Depp. It is awesome. Cubans are very hot and uninhibited.
putuunder2
@da90027: Very well said!!
Captain Obvious
Uh nothing has changed in America really. Go outside of the big dumb cities(or even still in them) and actually talk to people. I get hit on every time I go outside, I’m not always interested, but people do actually TALK. I feel like most of the people who gravitate to these apps are not very good socially so they don’t realize when people are actually hitting on them.
In fact the few times I’ve interacted with people from online sites/apps they were really terrible socially and couldn’t hold actual conversation. There’s a reason THEY prefer apps even if they’re physically attractive, socially they’re quite unattractive, and that matters far more once you get past the looks.
All they want is sex because they know you’ll lose interest five seconds after they open their trap to speak.
The people complaining don’t realize all they have to do is stop using the apps, keep up on current events, and actually talk to people outside in normal settings. You could meet hot guys just going about your daily errands and they’re actually able so socialize because they do something other than stare at a phone all day pretending to be something they’re not.
All apps do is make people obsess over looks which in normal situations only go so far. It keeps the looks portion which would normally be short lived extend into the most important part of the exchange. There are plenty of guys I thought would be out of my league in terms of looks who liked me after talking to me. Stop blaming apps, no one is forced to use them.