We hope you enjoy watching Before Night Falls, but felt it important to inform you of the present situation for gays in Cuba.

With regard to Before Night Falls, the writer Reinaldo Arenas did experience oppression because he was overtly gay. However at the same time he opposed the socialist direction the Cuban revolution took.

Cuban society was historically intolerant of gays, just as it was racist and discriminatory against women and country people. Not surprisingly the revolutionary society that developed after 1959 inherited these attitudes, and for a period gays were indeed oppressed, as they were in most of the rest of the Americas at this time.

Since 1976, there has been a gradual liberalisation of Cuban social and political life and much has changed especially on the question of gay and lesbian rights.

Are Gays and Lesbians still accused of crimes against morality?

"Homosexuality is not a criminal offence in Cuba. The 1979 penal code decriminalised homosexuality per se. It is therefore perfectly legal for consenting adults to engage in homosexual acts in private. Until the penal code was revised in 1987, it prohibited "public ostentation" of a homosexual "condition" and penalised private homosexual acts inadvertently seen by third parties. Homosexual males who had sex with minors were punished much more severely than males who had sex with under-aged females."
… "Although the 1979 provision was deleted from the 1987 code homosexual behaviour that causes a "public scandal" either because it contravenes public decency or because it involves molestation, may still be penalised by prison sentences of three to 12 months "

Are lesbians and gay men still forbidden to join the Communist Party?

"A typical Cuban homosexual’s life is far more likely to be constrained by the state’s political-ideological structure than by the repressive apparatus itself."

There is no written law, but residual machismo can still be a factor in preventing gays from being included. This is a social problem and not a legal one.

Are lesbian and gay organisations illegal?

"On July 28, 1994 the first steps were taken to promote gay and lesbian rights in an organised manner. Unfortunately, the establishment of the new Gay and Lesbian association of Cuba was immediately overshadowed by …. the "raft refugee" crisis a week later. Because of the youth and inexperience of its founders, GLAC was more notable for the enthusiasm than the organising skill of its members. This was the reason it foundered. Members of GLAC were not subject to any specific repression."

On a more general level, no organisations that promote or might be seen as a potential cover for promoting a pro-US political line (i.e. liberal democracy, "free" elections, neoliberal economics, the right to freedom of the press etc.) will be allowed. An association of gays that espoused any of these ideas would be shut down, not because it was gay but because it threatened the social and economic rights of the Cuban people.

Officially, attitudes have changed and the state is active in promoting tolerance, but as with most countries there is still a lot of work to be done.

Finally if you would like to hear more / see more on this topic, CSC recommends two films:

The documentary Gay Cuba which looks at the issue of homosexuality in the revolution. The other being the feature film Strawberry and Chocolate which did most to open up the debate about homosexuality among the Cuban population (it was incidentally the only feature film that the Cuban state could afford to sponsor in that year). The latter film is showing at Cornerhouse later this month.

Both are also available to buy from CSC.

Quotations above from the book Machos, Maricones y Gays by Ian Lumsden (London: Latin America Bureau, 1996)

Cuba Solidarity Campaign: Greater Manchester Group.