Кубада ЛГБТ құқықтарының эволюциясы

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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Cuba have significantly varied throughout modern history. Cuba is now considered generally progressive, with vast improvements in the 21st century for such rights. Following the 2022 Cuban Family Code referendum, there is legal recognition of the right to marriage, unions between people of the same sex, same sex adoption and non commercial surrogacy as part of one of the most progressive Family Codes in Latin America. Until the 1990s, the LGBT community was marginalized on the basis of heteronormativity, traditional gender roles, politics and strict criteria for moralism. It was not until the 21st century that the attitudes and acceptance towards LGBT people changed to be more tolerant. In 2018, the National Assembly of People's Power voted to legalize same sex marriage, with a constitutional referendum to be held in February 2019; it was later removed from the draft constitution. In May 2019, the government announced that the Union of Jurists of Cuba was working on the new Family Code, which would address same sex marriage. On 7 September 2021, the government announced that the new Family Code would be brought to the National Assembly for approval, and then be put to popular vote to legalize same sex marriage if approved in the referendum. The referendum was approved in April 2022 and took place in September 2022, with the referendum passing. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal in Cuba. Historically, public antipathy towards LGBT people was high. This had eased since the 1990s. Educational campaigns on LGBT issues are currently implemented by the National Center for Sex Education (locally known as "CENESEX"), headed by Mariela Castro, daughter of former president and First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, Raúl Castro. Pride parades in Havana are held every May, to coincide with the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, with attendance having grown every year. In 2022, Cuba became the first Latin American country to mark LGBT History Month.

Homophobia in Cuba persisted in the 1970s, with more tolerant attitudes beginning to appear in the mid 1970s. After a discussion of homosexuality at the Cuban Educational and Cultural Congress in April 1971, homosexuality was declared to be a deviation incompatible with the revolution. Homosexuality was considered sufficient grounds for discriminatory measures to be adopted against the gay community, and homophobia was institutionalized. Gay and lesbian artists, teachers, and actors lost their jobs. Gays and lesbians were expelled from the Communist Party. Students were expelled from university. Gays were prohibited from having contact with children and young people. Gays were not allowed to represent their country. Some homosexuals were given the ultimatum of either imprisonment (or extended terms for those already imprisoned) or leaving the country, although Fidel Castro publicly denied that anyone was being forced to leave. In 1988, the Government repealed the Public Ostentation Law of 1938 (lang es) and the police received orders not to harass LGBT people. In a 1988 interview with Galician television, Castro criticized the rigid attitudes that had prevailed towards homosexuality. Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar was reported to be among several hundred people detained in a raid on Havana's most popular gay discothèque, El Periquiton. According to a United States government report, Cuban customers of the club were fined and warned of imprisonment if they did not stop publicly displaying their homosexuality. The foreigners who were detained were released after a check of their documents. Many of the Cuban gay and lesbian clientele were reportedly beaten by police. This crackdown extended to other known gay meeting places throughout the capital, such as Mi Cayito, a beach east of Havana, where gays were arrested, fined, or threatened with imprisonment. Still, a number of clandestine gay clubs continued to operate sporadically in private homes. In 2004, the soap opera El jardín de los helechos (Garden of Ferns) included a lesbian couple as part of its plot. Carlos Sanchez, the male representative of the International Lesbian, Gay, Trans and Intersex Association for the Latin America and Caribbean Region, visited Cuba in 2004. While there, he asked about the status of lesbians and gays in the country and asked the Cuban Government why it had abstained from the vote on the "Brazilian Resolution", a 2003 proposal to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights that would symbolically recognize the "occurrence of violations of human rights in the world against persons on the grounds of their sexual orientation." The Government argued that the resolution could be used to further attack and isolate Arab countries, consistent with "North American aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq". Sanchez also asked about the possibility of creating an LGBT organization in Cuba. The Government said that the formation of the organization would distract attention from national security in light of constant threats from the United States. After meeting with some Cuban LGBT people, Sanchez reported the following observations:
"Neither institutional nor penal repression exists against lesbians and homosexuals." "There are no legal sanctions against LGBT people." "People are afraid of meeting and organizing themselves. It is mainly based on their experience in previous years, but one can assume that this feeling will disappear in the future if lesbians and gays start to work and keep working and eventually get support from the government. (The National Center for Sexual Education is offering this support)." "'Transformismo' (drag performance) is well accepted by the majority of the Cuban population." "There is indeed a change in the way people view homosexuality, but this does not mean the end of discrimination and homophobia. The population is just more tolerant of lesbians and homosexuals." "Lesbians and gays do not consider fighting for the right to marriage, because that institution in Cuba does not have the same value that it has in other countries. Unmarried and married people enjoy equal rights." In 2006, the state run Cuban television began running a serial soap opera titled La Otra Cara De La Luna (The Other Face of the Moon) in which a married man "discovers himself" through a sexual relationship with a male friend. In 2012, Adela Hernandez became the first known transgender person to hold public office in Cuba, winning election as a delegate to the City Council of Caibarien in the central province of Villa Clara.

In his autobiography My Life, Fidel Castro criticized the machismo culture of Cuba and urged for the acceptance of homosexuality. He made several speeches to the public regarding discrimination against homosexuals. In a 2010 interview with Mexican newspaper La Jornada, Castro called the persecution of homosexuals while he was in power "a great injustice, great injustice!" Taking responsibility for the persecution, he said, "If anyone is responsible, it's me We had so many and such terrible problems, problems of life or death. In those moments, I was not able to deal with that matter [of homosexuals]. I found myself immersed, principally, in the Crisis of October, in the war, in policy questions." Castro personally said that the negative treatment of gays in Cuba arose out of the country's pre revolutionary attitudes toward homosexuality.

In May 2019, the state run National Center for Sex Education, or Cenesex, abruptly canceled its 12th annual march against homophobia (pride parade). CENESEX, led by Mariela Castro, said only that "international and regional tensions" meant the parade had to be cancelled. According to the Miami Herald, this abrupt change was also motivated by increasing resistance to LGBT protections by Christian groups in Cuba, with the government hoping to avoid violent confrontations with more conservative elements. In August 2019, Leandro Rodríguez García, director of the Cuban Foundation for LGBTI Rights, was pulled from the departure lounge at the José Martí International Airport while awaiting a flight to Miami, Florida. Officials told him he was not allowed to leave Cuba and prevented him from boarding, despite him having obtained a US visa. In December, Journalist Maykel González Vivero, director and one of the founders of Tremenda Nota, the Spanish media partner for the Washington Blade, was prohibited from traveling outside the country by the Cuban Interior Ministry. Nelson Julio Álvarez Mairata, an LGBTI YouTuber who had recently worked as a reporter for Tremenda Nota, was similarly prohibited from travel outside of Cuba. A series of hacks in 2019 targeted LGBTI reporters social media pages, with posts referencing their sexual orientation in a negative way and the release of private photos, often having sexual content. In 2020, the state run Cuban Institute of Radio and Television censored out the kiss scene between the lead male character and another boy in the 2018 U. S. film Love, Simon. Activists criticized the decision and began to organize a "kiss in" protest of the censorship. The government, shortly before the kiss in, published an apology for the "mistake" of editing out the gay kiss and organizers cancelled the protest.

Where machismo and patriarchy are often conflated, it is important to note their difference. Patriarchy is a structure that allows for male superiority and male dominance but is generic whereas machismo has cultural implications that combines Latin American and Caribbean colonial history. Machismo is specific to Latin American culture. As a result of this culture, female sexuality was "mystified" and misunderstood, allowing many lesbians to escape prejudice where gay men could not. The Social Defence Code, which characterized "homosexual practices" as a "social threat" and imposed preventive measures to combat it, was repealed in 1979 by the Penal Code of Cuba. This Code did not criminalize homosexuality per se. However, Article 359(1) criminalized those who made "public display of their homosexual condition" or bothered or solicited others with "homosexual requests". The crime of "public display of homosexual condition" was repealed in 1987 and the crime of bothering or soliciting with "homosexual requests" was amended in 1997 to refer only to "sexual" requests.

Prostitution in Cuba has always been legal but has gone through periods of restriction and regulation over the years. Because of this, sex tourism in Cuba blossomed in the post colonial era, giving way to a different type of chosen family. However, prostitution in Cuba began a period of significant decline in 1998 and was no longer widespread or openly seen in Cuban tourist hotspots by 2007. In 2015, Anthropological Quarterly reported that through sex work, many gay Cuban men are able to gain autonomy and sex tourists sometimes ultimately support them and their families. The dynamic between sex workers and clients reportedly evolves into a gay kinship that expands to the Cuban family. This unique relationship is important to understand the connection between finances, gay Cuban men, and sex tourists. The current Constitution states that "marriage is a social and legal institution. It is based on free will and equality of rights, obligations and legal capacity of the spouses." In July 2018, the National Assembly approved a new draft constitution which recognized same sex marriage in Article 68. Amidst pressure from evangelical churches who opposed same sex marriage—even though President Miguel Díaz Canel expressed his support for same sex marriage that September—the National Assembly withdrew the language on 18 December 2018. As a result of removing the article, same sex marriage is neither prohibited nor regulated by the new Cuban Constitution. Had the article remained in the draft, it would have needed to go to a referendum in February 2019. Nevertheless, media outlets spoke of a "revolution within a revolution" or of a "rainbow revolution", and pointed out how quickly the political and societal landscape for LGBT rights has changed. The National Assembly and Mariela Castro have stated that same sex marriage will be legalized through a Family Code amendment instead. In March 2019, the Government began popular consultations to look into legalizing same sex marriage in the Family Code. A referendum on the proposed new Family Code, which would include same sex marriage, civil unions, adoption by same sex couples and altruistic surrogacy, was held in September 2022, and passed.

Employment discrimination on account of sexual orientation is prohibited by law. The Labor Code (Código de Trabajo) does not cover gender identity, and LGBT discrimination in other sectors of society – such as education, housing and public accommodations – is not addressed by the law. Mariela Castro, director of the National Center for Sex Education, had also sought to ban employment discrimination on the basis of gender identity, HIV status and disability, but this was rejected. In July 2018, a same sex couple, Brian Canelles and Arián Abreu, were kicked out of a Havana bar after taking a selfie of themselves kissing. A worker at the bar asked them to leave, saying: "The bar isn't interested in the gay public. We don't want that reputation." The case was widely criticized. Merely two days after the incident, Cuba's official gazette published a decree outlining that any private business found to discriminate against clients based on their gender or sexual orientation can be fined 1,000 Cuban pesos (around 860 euros/1,000 U. S. dollars) and shut down. The Cuban Constitution, amended in 2019, prohibits all discrimination on the basis of gender, gender identity and sexual orientation, among others. Article 42 reads as follows:

Since June 2008, qualifying Cubans have been able to have free sex reassignment surgeries under Resolución 126 ("Resolution 126"). Opinion polling suggested the move was unpopular among the Cuban public. As many scholars suggest, the Cuban Government treats trans rights and sex reassignment surgeries as a health issue. Cuba operates under the idea that healthcare is a right to all, allowing trans people access to public health care. In 1979, the Ministry of Public Health (MIN SAP) established the Multidisciplinary Commission for Attention to Transsexuals to provide both specialized health care and social services. Mariela Castro Espín describes it: "specialists in the care of transsexual persons, and adopted internationally approved diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, which were incorporated as services offered free of charge by the [National Public Health System], along with courses to train sex therapists."

The resolution permitting sex reassignment surgeries consisted of 11 articles that outlined the ways in which the Cuban Government aimed to improve their treatment of the trans community. Article 5 explicitly states, that the state should provide comprehensive health care to "all transsexual citizens" and it is also relevant to note that "one of the articles contains a glossary that defines various terms associated with health care for transsexual and transgender persons." Since 2008, the National Center of Sex Education has sponsored some LGBT festivals and pride events. In 2013, a week of drag shows, colorful marches, and social and cultural events in Havana culminated with celebrations of the International Day Against Homophobia. Events have been held every year since.

Lizette Vila's documentary films, Y hembra es el alma mía (1992) and Sexualidad: un derecho a la vida (2004), profile the lives of Cuban male to female transsexuals and travestis. Mauvaise Conduite or Improper Conduct is a 1984 documentary film directed by Néstor Almendros and Orlando Jiménez Leal about the UMAP labor camps. Before Night Falls (2000), directed by Julian Schnabel, is based on the autobiography of Reinaldo Arenas by the same name. Fresa y Chocolate, (Strawberry and Chocolate, 1993) directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, focuses on a conflicted relationship between a committed Marxist student and a flamboyantly gay artist. It was the first Cuban film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.

Same sex sexual activity legal (Since 1979) Equal age of consent (16) (Since 1979) Anti discrimination laws in employment (Since 2013) Anti discrimination laws in the provision of goods and services (Since 2018) Anti discrimination laws in all other areas (incl. indirect discrimination, hate speech) (Since 2019) Anti discrimination laws concerning gender identity (Since 2019) Same sex marriage (Since 2022) Recognition of same sex couples (Since 2022) Stepchild adoption by same sex couples (Since 2022) Joint adoption by same sex couples (Since 2022) LGBT people allowed to serve openly in the military (Since 1993) Right to change legal gender (Since 2008) Access to IVF for lesbians Altruistic surrogacy for gay male couples (Since 2022) Commercial surrogacy for gay male couples Conversion therapy banned by law LGBT anti bullying law in schools (as of 2017) MSM allowed to donate blood