By Leonardo Padura and - -
HAVANA, May 21 2008 (IPS)

Just thirty years ago, being homosexual, in Cuba, could be enough to incur the punishment of interruption of university study or expulsion from a job that involved contact with \’\’the public\’\’, writes Leonardo Padura Fuentes, a Cuban writer and journalist whose novels have been translated into a ten languages. In this article, Padura writes that today, in sharp contrast, various cities on the island held celebrations in observance of the International Day against Homophobia, a sort of gay pride event that included conferences, transvestite shows, book presentations, films, theatre pieces, as well as the growing commentary on upcoming legal and constitutional changes that will open the still restricted path to sex-change operations and civil union for gay couples and even the possibility of adoption, which is very rare in Cuba even for straight couples. Cuba is undergoing a profound change in its collective thinking that is of transcendent importance to the present and future of the island. Now that diversity has been accepted as the norm, it may be that Cuba\’s social system is moving towards greater social complexity and a more open economic model, towards a range of options for individuals that are freer and more satisfying.

Today, in sharp contrast, various cities on the island held celebrations in observance of the International Day against Homophobia, a sort of gay pride event that included conferences, transvestite shows, book presentations, films, theatre pieces, as well as the growing commentary on upcoming legal and constitutional changes that will open the still restricted path to sex-change operations and civil union for gay couples and even the possibility of adoption, which is very rare in Cuba even for straight couples.

Discussion of the changes that are happening or should happen on the island are usually framed in economic or political terms and generally conceived of as opening towards a market economy, or for some, the possibility of a total change of the system. However, connected with and at times at the margin of the transformations that have unfolded in the last few months and those that people speculate may occur, Cuba is undergoing a profound change in its collective thinking which is less visible but without a doubt of transcendent importance to the present and future of the island.

In a country where uniformity of thought has been forged and promoted by all of the structures and institutions of the all-encompassing socialist state, the existence of spaces where one can assert that ”difference is normal” (the slogan used during the national celebrations of the International Day Against Homophobia) demonstrates a remarkable range of social and political variation and is evidence that new paths are being forged in Cuban society.

Complex sexual diversity in a country that is traditionally macho and in which homosexuality long carried a political stigma can be seen as the recognition of the possibility of accepting other, different ways of being that are also necessary and demanded by a part of the society.

Some may think -and with reason- that admitting sexual diversity is and should have always been an individual option and therefore does not affect the essence of a society – one in which, moreover, this diversity always existed and was accepted without prejudice by many (it should also be noted that Cuba has nothing like the violent situations in Brazil or Mexico where homophobia produces dozens of killings of gays). Nonetheless, what happened in the past to homosexuals and what the acceptance of this co-existence with such ‘transgressors’ meant for the ideological norms of the Cuban system should not be forgotten.

There are other spaces where, even without slogans and celebrations, the diversity of Cuban society today manifests itself. The most visible may be in the world of culture, where since the last decade (when the film Strawberries and Chocolate came out, a story about sexual and political intransigence) the most dissimilar views and interpretations of Cuban reality co-exist, at times subject to censorship, at other times dodging it, but existing and propagating themselves as alternative views of social phenomena.

When almost a year ago Cuban society was asked to consider and express without fear its concerns, ideas, and suggestions regarding many areas of national life, it was as if an earthquake had struck the country, revealing a startling diversity of thought and expectations in a nation that was apparently homogeneous and uniform. It would seem that the postponement for economic or political reasons of social, individual, or economic alternatives did not result in their disappearance from the hopes of Cubans: all that was needed was an invitation and the floodgates opened.

Historically Cuba has always been diverse and heterogeneous. This might have been the factor that, despite the forced uniformity, saved us from many of the painful extremes of orthodoxy that plagued real socialism in Europe and Asia. Other modes, like institutionalised homophobia or the pretention of creating a tropical socialist realism, did strike us. But now that diversity has been accepted as the norm, it may be that Cuba’s social system is moving towards greater social complexity and a more open economic model, towards a range of options for individuals that are freer and more satisfying. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)

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