Hundreds attended a state-sponsored party on May 17 at Mi Cayito, a gay beach east of the Cuban capital, to commemorate the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Musicians were playing conga drums and guitars along the oceanfront promenade as couples danced salsa and street venders sold candy, soft drinks and flowers. LGBT Cubans over the last decade have become increasingly visible as efforts to extend rights to them have gained traction.
These positions and overtures stand in stark contrast to the treatment of LGBT people in the years following the Cuban Revolution. Cuba repealed its sodomy law in , but trans people continued to face persecution. The normalization of relations between Washington and Havana that President Obama announced late last year has done little to temper these criticisms inside Cuba and abroad. Mariela Castro has championed a number of LGBT initiatives in Cuba over the last decade, but has been criticized by some for not doing more.
Pastors from the U. Singer Thelma Houston also performed. Mariela Castro a week later led a march through Las Tunas, a provincial capital about miles southeast of Havana, to commemorate the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. A handful of journalists and photographers from Cuba and the U. They were among the hundreds of people who drank beers and rum at an after-party that was taking place at a bar on the outskirts of Las Tunas. She performed earlier in the evening before highlighting a campaign to fight HIV among men who have sex with men that featured colorful balloon animals engaging in sexual activity.
Mariela Castro and her supporters who marched with her in Las Tunas sought to frame the expansion of LGBT rights on the island as a continuation of the revolution that toppled then-President Fulgencio Batista and brought Fidel Castro to power nearly six decades ago.
Participants in events to commemorate the annual International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia in Las Tunas, Cuba, on May 16, , carry a large rainbow flag through the streets of the provincial capital. Gandulla told the Blade that more than a dozen independent LGBT rights advocates from across the country are members of his organization that he founded last year.
