Q&A:
Righting Past
Wrongs - Defending the
Right to Sexual
Diversity in Cuba
Interview with Mariela
Castro
HAVANA, Dec 13 (IPS) -
Cuban sexologist Mariela
Castro shocked the
world, and a good number
of people in Cuba, this
year when she announced
a proposed legal reform
in this socialist
Caribbean island nation
which would include the
full recognition of the
rights of gays,
lesbians, transsexuals,
transvestites and
transgender persons.
The director of the
National Centre for Sex
Education (CENESEX),
Castro has followed a
strategy of
awareness-raising on
sexual diversity in Cuba
since 2004, and is one
of the few people in
Latin America and the
Caribbean to carry out a
campaign of such
magnitude on this issue
from a government
institution.
The CENESEX proposals
include
non-discrimination on
the basis of sexual
orientation or gender
identity, recognition of
de facto unions between
same-sex couples, the
right of same-sex
couples to adopt
children, and the
responsibilities of
families and society
towards transsexuals,
transvestites and
transgender persons.
In an interview with IPS
correspondent Dalia
Acosta, the niece of
Cuban leader Fidel
Castro and daughter of
acting President Raśl
Castro said that
although amending
current laws would not
imply an automatic
change in social
attitudes, it would lay
the foundations for such
a change and prompt the
country’s institutions
to move towards
guaranteeing the rights
of sexual minorities.
IPS: What stage is your
proposal at?
MARIELA CASTRO: We have
three draft proposals.
The first is a Ministry
of Public Health
resolution to implement
integral health care for
transsexual persons,
including the creation
of a clinic to provide
care, from diagnosis and
hormonal treatment to
sex-change operations
and post-operative
follow-up.
The second is to include
sexual orientation and
gender identity in a
reform of the Family
Code of 1975, and the
related changes needed
in other bodies of law.
For instance, the
Ministry of Labour and
Social Security would
need to pass a specific
resolution to guarantee
employment for
transvestite or
transsexual people,
which is often difficult
to find.
And lastly, we are
preparing the arguments
for a draft law on
gender identity which
will address, among
other aspects, the fact
that a transsexual
person need not
necessarily undergo an
operation to change
their gender identity.
IPS: The reform of the
Family Code was in the
hands of the Political
Bureau of the ruling
Communist Party in June.
What is its status now?
MC: It’s going through a
consultation process.
The guidance we were
given by the Party was
that we should go ahead
with educating the
public before the draft
reforms are set before
the people. So right now
we are focusing on an
educational strategy,
through the media.
IPS: Is the
recommendation to
prepare the public a
good sign?
MC: I think it’s
positive. The importance
of the draft law has
evidently been
understood, but the
feeling is also that the
people deserve to be
informed in advance, so
that they do not take
offence.
IPS: Will the proposal
come before the ordinary
session of parliament
this December, or will
it have to wait until
next year?
MC: It’s still too soon.
Perhaps it will be ready
by July 2008. I’d like
that, and that’s why
we’re preparing the
ground to work quickly
and intensively with the
population on the issues
of gender identity and
sexual orientation.
IPS: Have you been able
to maintain mechanisms
for discussion with
different social
sectors?
MC: We have held
seminars in various
directorates of the
Interior Ministry,
especially with the
police, and at the
Communist Party’s
Advanced School, with
municipal party leaders,
and with three permanent
parliamentary
commissions.
One achievement is that
when Cuban transsexuals
who went abroad for a
sex-change operation
return, they can now go
to a municipal tribunal
and obtain a legal
change of identity.
We’re also waiting for
an agreement to be
signed to provide
training for lawyers in
the proper defence of
transsexuals, gays and
lesbians.
IPS: What about the
situation of
transsexuals who are
sent to prison for
breaking the law? Is
that being discussed?
MC: Modifications to the
criminal code and prison
regulations are needed.
So far, after the
seminars we gave in
prisons, when they have
admitted transsexual
inmates they haven’t
housed them with either
the female or the male
prison populations, but
in a separate area where
they face no conflicts.
At present there is a
transsexual convict who
is biologically male.
But she is in the
women’s prison, in the
infirmary area, and is
allowed to attend her
regular scheduled
sessions at CENESEX.
Another thing we’d like
to propose to the
Interior Ministry is
providing conjugal
facilities in prisons
for homosexual couples.
I think it is extremely
discriminatory that
these persons have
nowhere to meet for
intimacy, when other
prisoners do.
IPS: Another sensitive
sector, as important as
the media, is education,
not only because of the
way education influences
people from their
earliest childhood on,
but also because of the
discrimination that
students may encounter
at school. Have you come
to a working agreement
on this?
MC: Both the Ministry of
Higher Education and the
Education Ministry are
included in our
strategy, but we have
achieved very little.
There is also a serious
problem over transgender
people who drop out of
school. As their
mannerisms and attitudes
are related to their
gender identity, which
is not the sex that
people identify them
with, they are very
vulnerable to mockery
and rejection.
And then there are the
issues related to sexual
orientation. A lot of
prejudices have to be
overcome to address
these problems in the
education system. At a
more opportune moment,
we’ll have to create a
draft resolution
specifically for this
sector and, of course,
for training teachers.
IPS: Absence of
information about sexual
diversity in the Cuban
media has contributed to
ignorance, and therefore
prejudice. How would you
describe the present
situation?
MC: The media are
beginning to discuss the
issue, but only timidly
as yet. They are
overcoming their fear of
addressing these
subjects, which they
evidently know very
little about. We are
willing to offer advice,
and we are proposing
soap operas, radio
plays, documentaries and
films. Different ways of
making the issues
visible and gradually
informing people have to
be found.
I’m sure that as it
becomes more natural to
talk about these issues,
under the protection of
the law, government
agencies will also
become more flexible.
Everything has to happen
gradually.
IPS: This year a
spontaneous debate broke
out about the so-called
"five grey years" in
Cuban cultural politics.
But there are other past
problems as well, such
as the confinement of
homosexuals in the
so-called military
production support units
in the 1960s, or
penalties for homosexual
behaviour. Do you think
it is time to start
talking more clearly and
rationally about these
topics?
MC: It’s very healthy to
talk about what has
happened, and why. I
think it is generally
accepted that it was a
mistake, but it needs to
be analysed. Like human
beings, institutions
sometimes make mistakes,
and they have to be
capable of recognising
that fact, and deciding
what to do to avoid
repeating them, what
laws to pass and what
values to instil.
Acknowledging mistakes
can be painful,
especially when what was
done is in conflict with
revolutionary ideology.
Cuba’s mistakes were
very similar to those
that were committed and
still are being
committed in many
countries. The same
things happened here as
in other places. But the
Cuban errors were more
widely commented on
because of the
expectation that a
socialist revolution,
dedicated to freeing
human beings, should not
make such errors.
A revolutionary ideology
should be truly
revolutionary
throughout, not just in
some aspects. But the
ideology of that era was
deeply prejudiced
against homosexuals.
Communist parties
everywhere were
extremely homophobic.
Now they’re adopting
more inclusive
attitudes. Fortunately,
they have learned and
become aware of those
errors and many others.
Apparently the Cuban
Communist Party, too, is
digesting all this and
coming to terms with it.
It’s going through a
learning process on
these issues. What we
are doing is helping it
progress along the
learning curve.
But there’s no point in
looking for scapegoats
to blame. What we have
to do is learn from
experience and take
steps to move forward as
a society. |
