Cuba's gay
community celebrated unprecedented openness -- and
high-ranking political alliances -- with a government-backed
campaign against homophobia on Saturday.
The meeting at a
convention center in Havana's Vedado district may have
been the largest gathering of openly gay activists ever on
the communist-run island. President Raul Castro's
daughter Mariela, who has promoted the rights of
sexual minorities, presided.
''This is a very
important moment for us, the men and women of Cuba,
because for the first time we can gather in this way and
speak profoundly and with scientific basis about these
topics,'' said Castro, director of Cuba's Center for
Sexual Education.
Mariela Castro
joined government leaders and hundreds of activists at the
one-day conference for the International Day Against
Homophobia that featured shows, lectures, panel
discussions, and book presentations. A station also
offered blood testing for sexually transmitted diseases.
Cuban state
television gave prime-time play Friday to the U.S. film
Brokeback Mountain, which tells the story of two
cowboys who conceal their homosexual affair.
Prejudice against
homosexuals remains deeply rooted in Cuban society, but
the government has steadily moved away from the puritanism
of the 1960s and 1970s, when gays hid their sexuality
for fear of being ridiculed, fired from work, or even
imprisoned.
Now Cuba's
parliament is studying proposals to legalize same-sex unions
and give gay couples the benefits that people in traditional
marriages enjoy.
Parliament head
Ricardo Alarcon said the government needs to do more to
promote gay rights but said many Cubans still need to be
convinced.
Things ''are
advancing but must continue advancing, and I think we should
do that in a coherent, appropriate, and precise way because
these are topics that have been taboo and continue to
be for many,'' Alarcon told reporters.
Some at the
conference spoke of streaming out into the streets for a
spontaneous gay pride parade, but others urged caution.
The gay rights
movement should be careful not to ''flood'' Cuban society
with a message that many are not ready to hear, physician
and gay activist Alberto Roque cautioned.
And Mariela
Castro said gay activists should opt for more subtle ways to
chip away at deep-seated homophobic attitudes.
Defending equal
rights for Cubans, of all sexual orientations, is a key
principle of the Cuban revolution led by her uncle Fidel
Castro, who overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista in
1959, she said.
''The freedom of
sexual choice and gender identity [are] exercises in
equality and social justice,'' she said. (Andrea Rodriguez,
AP)
