CUBA:
Transvestites and
Crossdressers Key
Workers Against AIDS
By Dalia Acosta
PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba (IPS)
- Activism against AIDS
is uniting a group of
transvestites and
crossdressers in western
Cuba in a project that
is going beyond peer
education and making
inroads into the world
of culture.
"The time has come to
take us seriously. We
are in a position to
demand our place in
society, to contribute
to AIDS prevention
through our art, and to
be respected for our
abilities and
knowledge," a Cuban
transvestite, whose
artistic name is that of
Mexican actress and
singer Ninel Conde, told
IPS.
"I never felt so sure of
myself as I do now. When
I used to dress in male
clothes, I would always
hang my head. Since I
put on a pair of high
heels, I have felt proud
of being who I am. I
began to be happy with
myself, and I walk down
the street with my head
high," she said.
A volunteer worker at
the state Provincial
Centre for Prevention of
Sexually Transmitted
Diseases and HIV/AIDS at
Pinar del Río, 162
kilometres from Havana,
Ninel Conde won one of
the prizes at Transarte,
a cultural festival that
concluded with a
performance at the
city’s main theatre.
Fourteen crossdressers
and transvestites took
part in the Mar. 10
gala, along with some of
the best-known singers
in Pinar del Río, with a
panel of judges made up
of personalities from
the world of culture.
At the event, tribute
was paid to three of the
first men in this town
in western Cuba who
dared to dress as women
in public.
The message of AIDS
prevention, with strong
emphasis on the impact
of HIV, the AIDS virus,
on the community of men
who have sex with men,
reached the nearly 500
people who filled the
Teatro Milanés, an
emblem of national
culture, built in 1837.
"We have shared the
message with all the
wide variety in the
world of men who have
sex with other men. This
kind of artistic
performance, which tries
to educate people about
the ethics of
responsible sexuality,
and also elevate
aesthetic levels, is
both important and
timely," said poet
Nelson Simón, from Pinar
del Río.
Simón, considered one of
the greatest national
figures of homoerotic
poetry, said that "the
gay world continues to
lack places to socialise,"
even though Cuba is a
country "mature enough
to learn to live with
all kinds of different
options."
The issue becomes
particularly important
in the context of the
national campaign
against AIDS. By late
2007, the number of
HIV-positive people
diagnosed in the country
amounted to 9,039, of
whom 81 percent were
male.
Out of these men, 86.1
percent said they had
sex with other men,
according to Public
Health Ministry sources.
The situation is unique
in the province of Pinar
del Río, where only 68.7
percent of HIV-positive
men say they have sex
with other men.
Nationwide statistics
show that 14.3 percent
of HIV-positive men
define themselves as
heterosexual, compared
to 31.3 percent in this
Cuban province.
Given this situation,
"we’ll have to start to
talk more about
masculinity and take
actions aimed not only
at men who have sex with
other men but at the
heterosexual population,
too," Geidy Díaz, an
expert at the provincial
AIDS prevention centre,
told IPS.
Since the first
Transarte festival last
year, 18 crossdressers
and transvestites from
Pinar del Río have
graduated from training
workshops as health
promoters. This year’s
Transarte courses
included hairdressing,
modelling, corporal
expression, development
of social skills and
civic education.
According to Díaz, the
community of men who
have sex with men in
Pinar del Río is
motivated toward AIDS
prevention by its close
association to the
transvestite world.
"They (transvestites)
are ideal teachers in
peer education for this
group. They join in most
of the community
activities we carry out,
and have a
representative on the
expert advisory
council," she said.
As part of the project,
the provincial centre
has helped to find
courses and jobs for
transvestites who, in
many cases, leave the
educational system and
labour market because of
social rejection. Lack
of education and the
impossibility of working
dressed as women leads
them to prostitution,
and quite often, AIDS.
The local initiative is
part of an integrated
strategy for addressing
the needs of
transvestites,
transsexual and
transgender people,
promoted nationwide
since late 2005 by the
National Centre for Sex
Education (CENESEX) with
the involvement of a
wide range of other
state bodies.
Another group of
transsexuals and
transvestites, working
with CENESEX on AIDS
prevention tasks in
several provinces,
played an unprecedented
role in this country in
January, when they acted
as recording secretaries
and gave presentations
and testimonies at the
Fourth Cuban Congress of
Sex Education,
Orientation and Therapy.
"It was a high point for
me. I felt as though the
stage had become smaller
than when I danced at
the filming of the Cuban
film ‘La Bella de la
Alhambra’ (Enrique
Pineda, 1989). But I was
the one who had grown
larger," a crossdresser
from Pinar del Río with
the stage name Siarah
Morel told IPS.
A dancer and a graduate
in artistic direction,
Morel received tribute
at the first Transarte
festival, and has been a
local legend ever since
she first appeared, at
age 18, dressed as a
woman on top of a
carnival float
representing the fishing
industry, in 1976. "I
never thought I would
appear in the city
theatre as I really am,"
Morel said.
Simón, the poet, said
that holding Transarte
in a cultural
institution like the
Teatro Milanés "brings
into the centre of the
city what for a long
time has been relegated
to the margins."
A space for
participation is being
opened up "in a country
which must become, and
is increasingly
becoming, an inclusive
rather than an exclusive
society," he told IPS. |
