LavenderRed_Cubabook

1980: Homosexuality
‘A visible feature
of Cuban society’
The thunderous, monopolized voice of the U.S. media machine dwelled on homosexuals
who left Cuba from the port of Mariel in 1980, omitting the role of the CIA
in instigating migration. At the same time, the U.S.-led political blockade of Cuba
silenced the voices of Cubans who chose to stay, working together to actively defend
their workers’ state against the most powerful imperialist empire in history.
Arguelles and Rich stated, with the clarity of courage, “For all the gay men and the
few lesbians who left, there were many more who chose to stay. Their lives had been
constantly improving. The revolution might not yet speak to the homosexual in them, but
it continued to address other vital aspects of their being.” These Cubans, they reported,
“steadfastly refused to fulfill their gay identity at the cost of their national and political
identities.”
Few lesbians left from Mariel, Arguelles and Rich found. “Their small number by comparison
with that of gay men points, again, to the fuller integration of women into Cuban
society and the increased status and freedom enjoyed by lesbians, as women, under the
revolution.”
Ada, a lesbian Cuban rural nurse, said that everything in Cuba wasn’t “perfect.” But,
she said, “I remember how it was before [the revolution] and for the first time, I feel I’m
a human being.’” (Arguelles)
Arguelles and Rich reported that in this period of their research—1979 to 1984—the
homosexual population was “a visible feature of the Cuban social landscape”—part of
every sphere of economic, social and governmental organization, as well as at the point of
production of art and other forms of culture.
Arguelles and Rich observed, “They are no longer confined to an underworld economy
or alienated from the mainstream of social life as they were in the pre-revolutionary era.
Particular individuals are well known and pointed to with pride as evidence of revolutionary
non-discrimination.”
They reported finding “a flourishing homosexual social scene centered around private
parties and particular homes.” They described this social networking at parties and beaches
as “a feature of Havana life in general.”
Arguelles and Rich added, “While their sexuality may be an open secret inside Cuba,
many lesbians and gay males who participate in cultural and academic exchanges with the
‘A visible feature of Cuban society’ 37