Guardian UK: Havana Rights (Legalization of same-sex marriage in Cuba)

[marmar]

Havana rights
Plans to legalise gay marriage and offer sex change operations free of charge mean Cuba is set to become the most socially liberal country in the Americas.

Calvin Tucker


The street scene was entertaining, as always. Promenading down the colonial walkway known as the Prado was a cross-section of the city's humanity; a respectable old couple walking arm in arm, a bored-looking policeman smoking a Soy Popular, two young lovers holding hands with eyes only for each other, a Lycra-clad girl with eyes only for tourists, and a teenage boy with a big grin selling fake branded cigars: "Where you from, my friend? I work in the cigar factory. I do you good price."

And then, to complete the scene, a dozen transvestites came into view, singing: "All we are saying, is give peace a chance." No one batted an eyelid. Not me. Not the old couple. Not even the policeman.

This was Havana in October 2004. But it could have been any major city in socialist Cuba in recent years. After the severe anti-homosexual discrimination of the 1960s and 70s, Cuba's lesbian, gay and transgender community is set to be given something more important than a chance: the right to marry and enjoy full equality under the law.

"We have to abolish any form of discrimination against those persons," Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's national assembly, said recently. "We have to redefine the concept of marriage. Socialism should be a society that does not exclude anybody."
...snip...

While Havana has a lively and vibrant gay scene (something that would have been unthinkable 30 years ago), the picture is not uniformly rosy. Mariella Castro acknowledges that gays and lesbians still face occasional police harassment, but says that the days of official repression are over: "What remains are social and cultural reactions that must be transformed, the same as in many other countries." ........

The complete piece is at: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/calvin_tucker/2007/03/the_street_scene_was_entertain.html

[BayCityProgressive]

1. Good for Cuba

I am glad they are taking the lead on gay rights.

[John Q. Citizen]

2. We have to read about this stuff in foriegn news articles, because our free press isn't.

[lvx35]

3. That's a sad statement.

Cuba doesn't have the best track record on this one. But now looks like they are the leaders.

[BayCityProgressive]

4. yup

nearly all nations have a terrible gay rights record in their past..what is important now is that we move forward. South Africa is the only country in the world with sexual orientation as a protected class in their constitution.

[Vidar]

5. Bravo for Cuba yet again.

[eridani]

6. So, machismo and religious repression can fade

That's very good news.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Exactly! There are a lot of people who don't take the time to wonder where it came from.

Very easy to trace back to the root causes in religious repression, and a very, very sexist society among the Spanish conquerors in Latin America and some of the Caribbean plantation islands.

Great to see this article.

[IndianaGreen]

8. The day will come when Americans will get into rafts to flee for freedom

in Cuba, while America becomes a theocracy to rival the Taliban.