The official National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX) of Cuba will dedicate its Days against Homophobia and Transphobia this year to defend the cause of Palestine. Paradoxically, in that Arab nation homosexuals are persecuted.
This year, the events take place from May 3 to 18 and will be “an expression of the revolutionary activism of the LGTBIQ+ community and support for the Palestinian resistance,” the state agency Prensa Latina reported this Monday.
The director of CENESEX, Mariela Castro Espínstated in a press conference cited by Prensa Latina that, “unlike the campaigns of the big capitalist press and transnational communication companies that prohibit any demonstration against the genocide of the Israeli Army against the Palestinian people, in Cuba the slogan Free Palestine, from the river to the sea”.
Raúl Castro’s daughter established the agenda of the Cuban LGBTI community in the days that are supposedly to defend their rights, pointing out that “we will not speak out in favor of prejudices, but rather in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their cause, and against the genocidal aggressions of imperialism and international Zionism.”
Castro Espín did not refer to the situation of people from the LGBTI community in Palestine. In the Gaza Strip, male homosexuality is illegal and punishable by ten years in prison.
In the West Bank, it is legal and the age of consent to have both heterosexual and homosexual relations is 16 years. However, any public manifestation of homosexual orientation is also prohibited, as it is considered contrary to the values of Palestinian society.
Neither in the West Bank nor in Gaza is female homosexuality illegal, so technically relationships would be allowed. However, in neither region do there exist policies against discrimination and harassment towards homosexual or transsexual people. Marriage or civil union between people of the same sex is also not approved.
In 2016, several media outlets reported the execution by Hamas of Mahmoud Ishtiwi, who was accused of having homosexual relations and robbery. Ishtiwi had been a commander of the armed group.
The days that the Cuban regime will turn into its new platform to display its solidarity with the Palestinian people, that is suffering from Israeli bombings – without alluding to Hamas’s responsibility in the new escalation of the conflict – will also serve to “celebrate the achievements, after the update of the Cuban Constitution and the approval and implementation of those established in the Code of the Family in 2022,” said Castro Espín quoted by Prensa Latina.
Without mentioning the repression suffered by homosexual people in Cuba for decades, under the governments of Fidel and Raúl Castro, the latter’s daughter said that between the 1976 and 2022 codes there are notable changes and advances. Regarding the last one, she said that it reflects “greater protection and recognition of LGTBIQ + people”, as if the previous one had protected that group against persecution, discrimination and harassment.
The director of CENESEX also reported that, Since the approval in Cuba of the new Family Code, 1,033 marriages between people of the same sex have materialized (806 among men and 527 among women).
