LavenderRed_Cubabook

The law against same-sex love was removed the same year that the book was published
in 1979—almost a quarter century before the U.S. government followed suit under pressure
from a mass lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans movement.
A subsequent publication, “Are You Beginning to Think about Love?” translated and
edited in Cuba in 1981, “was more ambivalent,” wrote Bjorklund. “It was intended for a
broad audience and argued that homosexuals have the same ability to function in society
as other people, but that they can never be as happy as married people. Mónika Krause,
a leading expert at CNES, admitted that this was a response to criticism against the
first edition of Schnabl’s book, for being too positive towards homosexuality. A second
edition of Schnabl’s book, intended to be printed in 250,000 copies, although delayed because
of the economic crisis, however, persisted, stressing that sexual violation of minors
has no causal relationship to sexual orientation, dismissing the theories of seduction into
homosexuality, and emphasizing that since nobody is responsible for his or her sexual
orientation, homosexuals must be just as respected as heterosexuals.”
Álvarez said the next step in sex education was a paperback entitled “When Your
Child Asks You” (Cuando tu hijo te pregunta), first printed in 1980. It was offered for
public sale with a book aimed at sex education for children aged 9 to 12. “We did simple
illustrations showing the process of reproduction. This was the best way to start trying
to break the prejudices of the population,” he stated. “We were trying to tell parents that
they didn’t have any alternative, they had to tell children about these things, because their
kids were going to deal with them for better or for worse. It was up to the parents to
answer their kids’ questions and they needed to know how to do that.”
A fourth publication, “Thinking About Love?” (¿Piensas ya en el amor?), was designed
for teenagers. Álvarez explained: “This book covers sexually transmitted diseases and
discusses some of the emotional aspects of how children become adults and what adult
relations are all about. It deals with some of the problems that have to do with being in
love, and also talks about contraception.”
Yet another book was written for children from 3 to 7 years old, entitled “Mama, Papa
and Me” (Mamá, papá, y yo). Álvarez said, “It was the only one that didn’t sell out immediately,
the way all the rest of them did, and we think that’s a sign of some resistance
to our work in the population.”
In 1981, the Cuban Ministry of Culture produced a publication titled “In Defense of
Love” that stated homosexuality was a variant of human sexuality. Cuba-solidarity.org.uk
concluded that the book “argued that homophobic bigotry was an unacceptable attitude
inherited by the Revolution and that all sanctions against gays should be opposed.”
This ground-breaking work on sex education, in which Cuban women played such a
leadership role, helped pave the road for a scientific and humane approach to the AIDS
epidemic that put the imperialist countries to shame.
Sex education campaign battled old prejudices 43