LavenderRed_Cubabook

But by the 1970s—while cops were still raiding bars after Stonewall and same-sex
love was still illegal—the imperialists suddenly became champions of gay rights, anywhere
except on their own soil.
The big-business spin made it seem as though the Cuban Revolution was a wellspring
of anti-gay prejudice.
“Absent the persistent and pervasive climate of anti-communism,” McCubbin stresses,
“such attacks would have been laughable, emanating as they did from a country where
gay-baiting was an indispensable political tool and where scarcely a week went by without
the murder, somewhere within the U.S., of a transgender person.
“But since the anti-Cuba propaganda campaign was relentless and did have a negative
effect on many people, including many lesbian and gay youth, we felt a serious responsibility
to answer and challenge these articles, and we did, just as we conscientiously defended
the other socialist countries, and in particular the Soviet Union, from the steady
stream of anti-communist attacks.
“So we were often challenged by progressive youth, gay and straight: ‘You support
Cuba?’ The more serious listened carefully to what we had to say in Cuba’s defense,
but we were also badmouthed frequently by anti-communist elements in the gay movement.”
Understanding the Cuban Revolution, and the hand it was dealt by imperialism, is as
important today as it was then, because it demonstrates what a revolution can achieve,
even when surrounded and under siege by imperialism.
The truth to begin with is this: Com munists did not bring anti-homosexual prejudice
to the Americas. The development of class societies and colonialism did.
2 Rainbow Solidarity in Defense of Cuba