By Reuters, May 7, 2019
HAVANA - Cuban gay rights activists denounced the government’s decision to cancel this year’s parade against homophobia, accusing it of snatching away their main platform at a key moment as the Caribbean nation is set to debate legalizing same-sex marriage.
CENESEX, which is headed by Mariela Castro, the daughter of Communist Party leader Raul Castro, said international and regional tensions meant the parade could not be carried out successfully. It did not offer further details, leaving Cubans to speculate the cause — from the country’s cash crunch to its siege by the Trump administration.
“We thought the conga.... was already approved and consecrated - an error,” playwright and LGBT activist Norge Espinosa said in a Facebook post. “To not permit it is a sign that compels us to return to the closet, to know we are not welcome, that hope can be undone, if we do not have what is needed to fight.”
Cuba’s government has long tightly controlled public spaces and allowed few marches other than to express support for the government. Havana says it faces attempts by dissidents, directed by its old Cold War foe the United States, to undermine it.
The conga in Havana was an exception that had become a regular occurrence.
Despite
its having sent gays to work camps in the early days of Fidel Castro’s
1959 revolution, Cuba has become a regional leader in LGBT rights in
recent years, particularly in the Caribbean where some countries still
have anti-sodomy laws. It guarantees rights such as free sex-change
operations, although it has delayed a decision on others like gay
marriage.
Some LGBT activists are seeking to organize an alternative event on Saturday, when the conga was scheduled to take place.
“Let us march for our rights,” Yadiel Cepero wrote on a Facebook event page he created, although it seems unlikely the government would allow an unauthorized march to go ahead.
Some activists speculated that the government canceled the conga because it did not want to allow a public forum that could be diverted to criticize it at a moment when it was facing rising political hostility from the Trump administration.
Many believe the decision was also motivated by the popular backlash last year against the government’s proposal of including a change in the new constitution that would have opened the door to gay marriage.
In a rare non-state Cuban campaign, evangelist churches attacked the proposal, which eventually was removed from the new constitution.
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| Mariela Castro holding gay rainbow flag in last year's parade |
HAVANA - Cuban gay rights activists denounced the government’s decision to cancel this year’s parade against homophobia, accusing it of snatching away their main platform at a key moment as the Caribbean nation is set to debate legalizing same-sex marriage.
Gay
rights activists Isbel Diaz Torres (R) and Jimmy Roque Martinez, speak
during an interview in Havana, Cuba, May 7, 2019. REUTERS/Alexandre
Meneghini
CENESEX, which is headed by Mariela Castro, the daughter of Communist Party leader Raul Castro, said international and regional tensions meant the parade could not be carried out successfully. It did not offer further details, leaving Cubans to speculate the cause — from the country’s cash crunch to its siege by the Trump administration.
“We thought the conga.... was already approved and consecrated - an error,” playwright and LGBT activist Norge Espinosa said in a Facebook post. “To not permit it is a sign that compels us to return to the closet, to know we are not welcome, that hope can be undone, if we do not have what is needed to fight.”
Cuba’s government has long tightly controlled public spaces and allowed few marches other than to express support for the government. Havana says it faces attempts by dissidents, directed by its old Cold War foe the United States, to undermine it.
The conga in Havana was an exception that had become a regular occurrence.
Some LGBT activists are seeking to organize an alternative event on Saturday, when the conga was scheduled to take place.
“Let us march for our rights,” Yadiel Cepero wrote on a Facebook event page he created, although it seems unlikely the government would allow an unauthorized march to go ahead.
Some activists speculated that the government canceled the conga because it did not want to allow a public forum that could be diverted to criticize it at a moment when it was facing rising political hostility from the Trump administration.
Many believe the decision was also motivated by the popular backlash last year against the government’s proposal of including a change in the new constitution that would have opened the door to gay marriage.
In a rare non-state Cuban campaign, evangelist churches attacked the proposal, which eventually was removed from the new constitution.
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