Quote of the day
By
Alberto de la Cruz, on November 18, 2012, at 2:31 pm
Our friend Zoé Valdés on the transgendered Cuban recently "elected" to public office in Cuba (my translation):
"It would have been important news if this "city council member" (does such a title actually exist in Cuba?) would have been anti-Castro, or for example, would have been a member of the opposition. But since this is not the case, this becomes nothing more and nothing less than an attempt to put a sequin dress on the dictatorial regime of Castro II. The photograph is "precious," a pose consistent with the new post being occupied."
What Zoe is getting at is that the only sexually “alternative” person that is acceptable in Cuba is one that is pro-Castro. Period. Anybody who opposes the regime, however peacefully, has serious problems in Cuba, but being anti-regime AND sexually unconventional is even worse, just as being anti-regime and black is worse. The regime, despite lip service and cosmetic gestures to the contrary (especially for foreign consumption), has ALWAYS considered blacks, let alone gays, as inferior beings.
However, it realized early on that blacks could be useful to its purposes in various ways, both in real terms and for propaganda purposes (again, especially for foreign consumption), so it moved to co-opt them and “accept” them with the unspoken but clear understanding that they were expected to be VERY grateful (in perpetuity) to the “revolution” for its condescension and patronizing embrace.
Homosexuals, on the other hand, were seen as not only inferior and degenerate but too weak to be significantly useful, except in isolated cases. This resulted in aggressive and systematic homophobia until recently, when it was realized that times and attitudes had changed, especially abroad, and good PR mileage could be had from making a show (as in theater) of being “tolerant” of gays, preferably flashy, attention-grabbing types, with the clearly implicit proviso that, again, they MUST be pro-regime, same as blacks.
Needless to say, opportunism can (and does) occur in people of any sexual orientation, and opportunism has always been a very serious problem in Cuba. Among those who were overtly pro-Castro once he took over, the opportunists were far more numerous than the true believers, and that has always been the case.