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waging covert war and threatening overt war against Cuba, trying to sabotage revolutionary construction at every turn. Yet this small island nation of 11 million has, for half a century, done what the richest imperialist country on the planet won’t do and can’t do: provide everyone jobs, food and clothing, a home, free education—from kindergarten to graduate school—and free quality health care, including preventive medicine. The Cuban Revolution has made enormous strides in eliminating racism, which itself required dismantling the apartheid economic and social structures. The Cuban Revolution elevated mass popular discussion about how to raise a “new man” and a “new woman” in a society still trying to shed the burdens of almost half a millennium of patriarchal class rule and church dogma. The revolution ushered in sex education and reproductive rights. Revolutionary Cuba is also making qualitative leaps in understanding gender expression. U.S. airport bookstores are lined with pop psychology publications that claim women and men are from different planets. Cuba’s mass discussion about the “new man” and the “new woman,” which examines new ways to interact, is light-years ahead ideologically. The whole premise of the island-wide education, discussion and debates is that prejudicial and harmful attitudes and actions resulted from old, oppressive economic and social organization—and not vice-versa. The mass discussion starts from the understanding that with changed economic and social organization, human beings can change their attitudes, rather than being biologically wired to be oppressive, violent, avaricious or cruel. Break the U.S. blockade Of course, there were and are problems in Cuba. That’s what half a millennium of colonialism and imperialism leaves—problems. But the problems that exist in Cuba—or any other workers’ state—do not invalidate the revolution. Quite the contrary. The process of solving those problems is the forward motion of the revolution. A lot of facts are assembled between the covers of this book. The facts articulate Cuba’s achievements—quantitative gains, as well as qualitative advancements—of which there are many. These compiled articles are not dispassionate journalism. Political analysts, like historians, always write from a class point of view. But these articles are factually based and are placed where they belong—within the context of a life-and-death struggle to defend Cuba. You will find no condemnation of the Cuban Revolution in this book. The history of the Cuban Revolution is a process from which we who have not yet made our revolutions have a great deal to learn about the struggle for sexual liberation, based on concrete historical conditions. Viewed together, the facts in these 25 articles demonstrate Cuba’s inexorable progress on social issues, despite the U.S.-enforced economic blockade and unrelenting imperialist Introduction xiii
covert and overt warfare that drains the country’s labor, time, planning, organization and resources for defense. We hope that, because this material is here amassed in one place for the first time, the reader will be able to get a panoramic view of the forward motion of the Cuban Revolution in the struggle to eradicate the legacy of pre-Revolutionary prejudices against homosexuality, diversity of gender expression, sex variance and sex change. —Leslie Feinberg Managing editor, Workers World newspaper In June 2007, as this book was first being readied for production, Cuban revolutionary leader Vilma Espín died. The Editorial Board of WW newspaper extends its deepest solidarity at this painful loss for the Cuban people. Espín helped lead the Cuban women’s “revolution within the revolution” that has blazed new trails for liberation of sexuality, gender expression and the sexes. She leaves the value of her lifetime of laboring for change to the Cuban people, the Cuban Revolution and the communist movement worldwide. xiv Rainbow Solidarity in Defense of Cuba
Page 2 and 3: LESLIE FEINBERG Rainbow Solidarity
Page 4: The Lavender & Red series is dedica
Page 7 and 8: Cuba brought science, not scapegoat
Page 9 and 10: A special thanks to Workers World n
Page 12 and 13: INTRODUCTION “Rainbow Solidarity
Page 16 and 17: 1970s Cold War gay-bashers condemn
Page 18 and 19: Anti-gay, anti-trans Inquisition in
Page 20 and 21: Rare Books and Manuscripts Division
Page 22 and 23: Colonial period in Cuba Bodies shac
Page 24 and 25: 1950s Havana: Imperialist sexploita
Page 26 and 27: Unweaving the lies Why many Cuban g
Page 28: The two researchers point out that
Page 31 and 32: “Havana’s gay male underground
Page 33 and 34: As Washington and the Pentagon ratc
Page 35 and 36: Lumsden added, “There was competi
Page 37 and 38: “Taking those three categories in
Page 39 and 40: One youth concluded to Cardenal,
Page 41 and 42: In an October 2001 movie review abo
Page 43 and 44: not a repressive apparatus. Rather,
Page 45 and 46: Attempts to supplant that new, scie
Page 47 and 48: Fidel Castro metaphorically answere
Page 49 and 50: Arguelles and Rich revealed how U.S
Page 52 and 53: 1980: Homosexuality ‘A visible fe
Page 54: The most common slur hurled at male
Page 57 and 58: illustrated texts, and educational
Page 60 and 61: Dealing with Aids Crisis Cuba mobil
Page 62 and 63: Capitalism and contraception The ye
Page 64 and 65:
AIDS quarantine in Cuba Care & prev
Page 66 and 67:
WW PHOTO Left to right: The late Mi
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Cuba brought science, not scapegoat
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Walter Lippmann Billboards aren’t
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U.S. imperialist blockade obstructe
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“Even in the face of the [U.S.] b
Page 76 and 77:
Cuba and homosexuality Change appar
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Many men found each other in the da
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viewers. I don’t know. But at any
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‘Gay Cuba’ Two Cuban-backed doc
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Sonja de Vries Cuban youth of all s
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La Güinera, Cuba Cross-gender perf
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Margarita Gilpin The documentary
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1990s: Broadcasting education ‘to
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diseases, media campaigns on the HI
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Cuba’s CENESEX leads the way on s
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She has proposed that when the Cuba
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Fidel Castro backs effort Cuba’s
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Revolution takes work Mariel Castro
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Cuba: ‘Bringing revolution’s hu
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sciousness about sexual liberation,
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‘Cuba: Estamos contigo!’ Rainbo
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Former political prisoners Laura Wh
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Australia, states, “I want to exp
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G. Dunkel First public event for Ra
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POSTSCRIPT: Cuba surpasses world on
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are trying to see how to do that, w
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Cardenal, Ernesto. 1974. In Cuba. N
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Feinberg, hoisting flag aloft, at B
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42. Hay studies ancient history, fi
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Cayo Cruz, 7 Centro Nacional de Edu
Page 129 and 130:
“La Jiribilla,” 80, 106 La Jorn
Page 131:
“Stone Butch Blues,” 107 Stonew
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