Marchers in a conga line ended four days of activities against homophobia in Ciego de Ávila, Cuba. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

By Ivet González
CIEGO DE ÁVILA, Cuba , May 20 2013 (IPS)

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community in Cuba has won advances on issues like the change of name of pre-operative transgender persons, while they continue to fight for the right to same-sex civil unions.

For the first time since 1997, a transsexual woman who had not undergone sex-change surgery was issued a photo ID card this year reflecting her chosen name and gender identity, Manuel Vázquez, a lawyer with the National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX), a government-funded body, told IPS.

“We will continue supporting efforts to attain name changes in other cases, and we hope it will become the norm,” said Vázquez, who is head of the legal services unit in CENESEX, which reports that the family and the workplace are the spheres where the rights of LGBT persons are violated the most.

Up to now, the photo on the national ID card of trans women and men has had to reflect their biological sex.

In 1997, CENESEX managed to reach agreements with the ministries of the interior and justice to change the names and photos on the ID cards of 13 transgender people who had not undergone sex-reassignment surgery, although other civil registry documents, such as their birth certificates, were not modified. But that had not happened again until now.

Transgender people who have undergone sex-change surgery, which is provided free of charge in Cuba since 2008, are allowed to modify their ID cards. In Cuba, 19 people – two of them female-to-male transgender persons – have had sex-reassignment surgery so far, according to CENESEX.

“Now a trans person who has not had surgery is free to seek and win a name change, thanks to this precedent,” Vázquez said.

Speaking to IPS during the month-long events surrounding the International Day Against Homophobia, celebrated May 17, Adela Hernández, the only transgender member of a municipal assembly in Cuba, said she had started the process of applying for a name change on her ID card.

Hernández, a nurse and now a municipal assembly member in the city of Caibarién in the central province of Villa Clara, had to register as a candidate in the October-November 2012 municipal elections under the name José Agustín Hernández and with a photo that looks very different from the woman who won a majority of votes in her district.

Hernández is one of the special guests on this year’s agenda of educational, cultural and – for the first time – sports activities organised by CENESEX, which has led a month of anti-homophobia events every year since 2008.

On this occasion, the central activities took place May 14-17 in the city of Ciego de Ávila, 434 km east of Havana, ending with a festive march down the central avenue Libertad, with the demonstrators waving rainbow and Cuban flags and dancing in a conga line.

Mariela *, a 36-year-old mother, came to watch the conga line with her nine-year-old baby. “I haven’t taken part (in the activities), but I’m not against it,” she told IPS. “These events help families learn about sexual diversity and to respect it more, and help children and young people grow up better.”

But other people are still opposed to the campaign for respect for free sexual orientation and gender identity, which CENESEX carries out all year long, culminating in the May schedule of events, dedicated this year to families.

CENESEX director Mariela Castro said “the hardest thing is to change people’s mentalities,” in a country that is still heavily machista and homophobic. In fact, until the 1990s, “ostentatious public displays of homosexuality” were illegal.

Since 2012, the LGBT community and CENESEX have stepped up their activism demanding recognition of sexual rights as human rights in this country, which has no specific law against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Cuban parliament has not yet debated the bill for a new “family code”, sponsored in 2008 by the non-governmental Federation of Cuban Women and other institutions. Among other things, the bill, aimed at updating the family code in effect since 1975, would recognise same-sex civil unions.

In Latin America, same-sex marriage is legal only in Argentina and Uruguay, as well as Mexico City and three states in Mexico. In Brazil, meanwhile, civil unions that confer nearly the same rights as marriage are legal, and on May 14, the National Council of Justice ordered civil registries to allow same-sex couples who apply for a marriage license to marry.

Vázquez called for a law on civil unions in Cuba, and said he supported the creation of a law on gender identity, as advocated by legal experts and activists.

But until such legislation is approved, the 26-year-old lawyer’s strategy is to train attorneys and judges on how to take advantage of existing laws in cases of violations of LGBT rights

“People also have to be brave, and report these crimes,” he said.

He mentioned the first workshop on the question of LGBT rights for lawyers and judges, held in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba. CENESEX also plans to expand its legal services to other parts of the country.

“There is no law on the rights of homosexuals. There is only very vague language about it,” said Raquel Fernández of the Red de Lesbianas Atenea, a network of lesbians based in Ciego de Ávila. Domestic violence and limited access to housing or jobs due to homophobia are among the limitations that lesbians suffer the most, she told IPS.

*The source asked that her last name not be used.

Like other pe de, "Duyen" sings mobile karaoke, stopping off at various restaurants around town to perform. Helen Clark/IPS

By Helen Clark
HO CHI MINH CITY , Jun 9 2012 (IPS)

The restaurant Thuy Linh sits by one of Saigon’s black, soupy canals at the edge of District Three. Though operating in an area already full of restaurants and cafes it doesn’t struggle for business.

Waitresses squeeze between plastic tables occupied by families and friends, continually dodging toddlers running in circles and screaming over the music.

Most patrons frequent the shop for the food. But there is something else about Thuy Linh that sets it apart from other eateries: most of the waitresses who work here are ‘pe de’, a common southern Vietnamese term for male-to-female transgender people.

“This shop was introduced to us as ‘pe de’ but we came back many times since the food’s good and it’s close to my place,” said one female diner, looking up from the Mekong Delta-style hot pot known here as ‘lau’.

Since Quan Thuy Linh opened for business on a street corner over a decade ago, it has attracted many pe de and a few gay men looking for work.

Hong Ngoc (37) has worked in her aunt’s restaurant for years as a waitress. She says the eatery was started by a pe de as a place where others could come for support or work.

“They (the waitresses) were disadvantaged as they came from other provinces where their families didn’t accept them,” she told IPS.

Slow progress

Vietnam’s big cities have become more liberal in recent years but the countryside, where some 70 percent of the 86 million-strong population lives, remains traditional and most pe de either have to struggle for acceptance from the community or “hide themselves”.

Hong Ngoc (her nickname) said she realised her own sexuality at the age of 16. “I was interested in clothes and beautiful things,” she yelled over the clatter of the restaurant. Though still ‘pre-op’ (a term used for pe de who have not yet had breast implants) her hair is long and her eyebrows thinly plucked.

“Most of (us) are gay from birth. When we get older we have the freedom to leave the family and become pe de.”

She said her family doesn’t know about her new life. On the rare occasions when she visits her home in Bac Lieu province in the far southern delta, she cuts her hair short.

Though transgender people are slowly gaining more mainstream acceptance serious hurdles remain.

Unlike its regional neighbours, like Thailand or Indonesia, Vietnam has no long tradition of a “third sex” and thus many people, especially in the more conservative north, struggle to understand the phenomenon.

People cannot yet change their names on government-issued ID cards nor can they receive treatment as women in government hospitals, according to local news reports.

Since political organising is anathema to Vietnam’s one-party system, the LGBT movement has not gained as much traction as it has in other countries over the last few decades. There is little cohesive organisation as gays, lesbians (“les”) and pe de keep mostly within their own groups.

However issues about gender and homosexuality are slowly gaining more prominence. Late last year a film about a rent boy in Ho Chi Minh City, ‘Hot Boy Noi Loan’ (Lost in Paradise), enjoyed a mainstream release with only a few cuts at local cinemas and received favourable press.

Gay marriage however is still illegal, following a 2000 ban after two women married. Most recently two southern families were made to pay small fines after their sons married and held a wedding party.

In Ho Chi Minh City, many pe de earn a living as entertainers, singing at parties, weddings and, often, funerals. The latter tradition, which likely originated in the old port area of District Four – once notorious for its heroin addicts and mafia strongmen – has become a popular trend in the past couple of decades.

Some pe de also find work as call girls but usually only after full operations.

Linh Trang (50) has been performing at events for over 20 years. She organises groups of pe de to sing at funerals and has watched the relatively new tradition take hold across the city and some parts of the countryside too.

She recalled that when she first began, her business was far more “underground” than it is today. Now, though police might still break up the party and chase away the performers, it’s more likely to be over noise problems than simple prejudice.

But life is not easy. “Some pe de live only by singing, some also rely on support from their families. Some have gone through surgery and make more as prostitutes,” Trang told IPS.

“Trinh”, a 19-year-old singer with Trang’s troupe, said, “When I was a little child my family used to beat me to prevent me from going out singing.” It didn’t work; these days she earns a living as a performer and dates one of the male singers in the group.

“Now, they (her family) agree with my work.”

The little public and social support available to pe de comes mostly from foreign governments or international NGOs. Earlier this year Australia donated some 100,000 dollars towards LGBT work in Vietnam.

“Gerry” Chen, also from Ho Chi Minh City, works as a volunteer for ICS, a local LGBT NGO. He says though his group works with gay, lesbian and transgender people there is not always a lot of incentive for collaboration between the various groups.

Though awareness has increased, he believes that it remains a little limited. For instance, he pointed out than many people still believe transgender and gay people are the same.

Chen blames Vietnam’s mainstream media for projecting a negative stereotype of homosexuality. “Vietnamese movies portray gay characters as really girly and they make people laugh – that is the (defining) gay characteristic,” he lamented.

Despite the stigma though, the tide is slowly turning.

Places like Thuy Linh offer an environment where pe de can work regular jobs, free from stereotyped roles as entertainers

“We’re eating here because the food is good, not because of the pe de,” a customer at Thuy Linh told IPS. “Pe de are just normal people.”

(END)