Fil Castro’s Horrific Rerd on Gay Rights

Contents:

• FIL CASTRO’S HORRIFIC RERD ON GAY RIGHTSPINKWASHCONCENTRATN MPS FOR GAYS. POLIL PRISONS WHERE THEY WERE TREATED LIKE ‘BEASTS.’ LISTEN UP, LIBERALS: BEFORE YOU CELEBRATE CASTRO, REMEMBER HIS VICTIMS.JAM KIRCHICKUPDATED APR. 13, 2017 2:17PM EDT / PUBLISHED NOV. 27, 2016 2:23PM EST PHOTO ILLTRATN BY ELIZABETH BROCKWAY/THE DAILY BEASTFIL CASTRO WAS MANY THGS: A REVOLUTNARY, A MUNIST, A GARLO ORATOR. AMID THE FAWNG ENIA RELEASED UPON HIS LONG-OVERDUE ATH AT THE AGE OF 90, SHOULD NEVER BE FOTTEN THAT HE WAS ALSO AN OPPRSOR, TORTURER, AND MURRER OF GAY PEOPLE. “WE WOULD NEVER E TO BELIEVE THAT A HOMOSEXUAL ULD EMBODY THE NDNS AND REQUIREMENTS OF NDUCT THAT WOULD ENABLE TO NSIR HIM A TE REVOLUTNARY, A TE MUNIST ANT,” CASTRO TOLD AN TERVIEWER 1965. “A VIATN OF THAT NATURE CLASH WH THE NCEPT WE HAVE OF WHAT A ANT MUNIST SHOULD BE.” IN THE EY OF CASTRO AND HIS REVOLUTNARY RA CHE GUEVARA—WHO EQUENTLY REFERRED TO GAY MEN AS MARIN, “FAGGOTS”—HOMOSEXUALY WAS HERENTLY UNTERREVOLUTNARY, A BOURGEOIS NCE. TO A TRADNAL LAT AMERIN MACHISMO THAT VIEWED GAYNS PEJORATIVELY, THEY MARRIED AN IOLOGIL FIXATN TREATG AS POLILLY UNSIRABLE. IT WASN’T LONG AFTER CASTRO ME TO POWER THAT POLICE BEGAN ROUNDG UP GAY MEN. IN 1965, THE REGIME TABLISHED PRISON WORK MPS KNOWN AS MILARY UNS TO AID PRODUCTN (UMAP), TO WHICH POSED HOMOSEXUALS, JEHOVAH’S WNS, AND OTHER “UNSIRABLE” ELEMENTS. ALERT TO THIS NEWS, THE MATTACHE SOCIETY—ONE OF THE EARLIT GAY RIGHTS ANIZATNS THE UNED STAT—HELD MONSTRATNS OUTSI THE UNED NATNS AND THE WHE HOE SUCCSIVELY OVER TWO DAYS. FOUR YEARS BEFORE THE WORLD-FAMO STONEWALL RTS, THE WERE TWO OF THE FIRST GAY RIGHTS PROTTS HELD THE UNED STAT. THAT SAME YEAR, ALLEN GSBERG WAS EXPELLED OM CUBA FOR SPREADG MORS THAT RL CASTRO—FIL’S BROTHER AND SUCCSOR AS PRINT—WAS GAY AND CLAIMG THAT GUEVARA WAS “CUTE.” PUTTG GAYS TO NCENTRATN MPS IS NOT THE ONLY PRACTICE CASTRO BORROWED OM THE NAZIS. DURG THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS, ACRDG TO RECENTLY RELEASED GERMAN TELLIGENCE FIL, THIS SO-LLED ANTI-FASCIST ATTEMPTED TO HIRE FORMER SS OFFICERS TO STCT HIS ARMY. THOUGH THE CUBAN REGIME CLOSED DOWN THE UMAPS THE LATE 1960S, NTUED TO REPRS GAY MEN AS IOLOGILLY SUBVERSIVE ELEMENTS. OPENLY HOMOSEXUAL PEOPLE WERE PREVENTED OM JOG THE COMMUNIST PARTY AND FIRED OM THEIR JOBS. ONE OF THE UNTRY’S MOST DISTGUISHED WRERS, REALDO ARENAS, REUNTED THE PRISON EXPERIENCE HE AND UNTLS OTHER GAY MEN ENDURED HIS MEMOIR BEFORE NIGHT FALLS. “IT WAS A SWELTERG PLACE WHOUT A BATHROOM,” HE WROTE. “GAYS WERE NOT TREATED LIKE HUMAN BEGS, THEY WERE TREATED LIKE BEASTS. THEY WERE THE LAST ON TO E OUT FOR MEALS, SO WE SAW THEM WALK BY, AND THE MOST SIGNIFINT CINT WAS AN EXCE TO BEAT THEM MERCILSLY.” GAYS PRISED A SIGNIFINT PORTN OF THE 125,000 CUBANS (“WORMS,” FIL CASTRO’S WORDS) PERMTED TO LEAVE THE ISLAND FOR THE UNED STAT AS PART OF THE 1980 MARIEL BOATLIFT. (THE 1984 DOCUMENTARY IMPROPER CONDUCT, WHICH TELLS THE STORI OF GAY AND STRAIGHT MARIELOS, REMAS ONE OF THE STARKT DICTMENTS OF THE CASTRO REGIME.) WHEN THE HUMAN IMMUNOFICIENCY VIS H THE ISLAND’S GAY MUNY THE MID-1980S, THE REGIME’S RPONSE WAS TO QUARANTE ALL HIV-POSIVE PEOPLE SANARIUMS, REFERRED TO AS “PRETTY PRISONS” BY THE FOUNR OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATN’S GLOBAL PROGRAM FOR AIDS. NO DOUBT ATTUNED TO THE WAY WHICH GAY RIGHTS HAS BEE CENTRAL TO THE AGENDA OF A GLOBAL LEFT CREASGLY SENSIVE TO THE CLAIMS OF INTY POLICS, THE CUBAN REGIME RECENT YEARS HAS TRIED TO FASHN SELF AS BEG THE VANGUARD OF HOMOSEXUAL LIBERATN. IN 2010, FIL CASTRO BELATEDLY ADMTED THAT HIS REVOLUTN’S TREATMENT OF GAYS NSTUTED “A GREAT JTICE.” IT WAS, HOWEVER, A S OF OMISSN RATHER THAN MISSN, TRANSPIRG ONLY BEE HE WAS DISTRACTED, TOO BY FIGHTG OFF YANKEE IMPERIALISTS TO PREVENT THE ATROCI BEG MTED HIS REVOLUTN’S NAME. TODAY, FIL’S NIECE (RL’S DGHTER) MARIELA CASTRO HAS EMERGED AS AN LGBT ACTIVIST, HELMG AN ANIZATN LLED THE CUBAN NATNAL CENTER FOR SEX EDUTN. COCINTALLY, SHE IS THE FOC OF A DOCUMENTARY, MARIELA’S MARCH: CUBA’S LGBT REVOLUTN, PREMIERG MONDAY NIGHT ON HBO. MARIELA HAS BEEN LD BY MANY THE WT AS A FORCE FOR PROGRSIVE CHANGE, AND HER CISN TO PH FOR ACCEPTANCE OF LGBTS MAY BE HELPG ON THE MARGS. BUT NO MATTER HOW MUCH LIFE FOR GAY CUBANS MIGHT HAVE IMPROVED OM THE DAYS OF FORCED LABOR MPS, ’S ALL OCCURRG WH THE NTEXT OF A TOTALARIAN SOCIETY WHOSE CIZENS NNOT VOTE, ARE NIED BASIC EEDOMS LIKE THE RIGHT TO SPEAK OR PROTT EELY, AND NNOT FORM ANIZATNS PENNT OF THE ERNMENT. INED, TELLS YOU EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NTEMPORARY CUBA THAT THE UNTRY’S MOST VISIBLE LGBT ACTIVIST IS THE STRAIGHT DGHTER OF RL CASTRO. MARIELA IS A HARD-RE MUNIST WHO SKIRTS AROUND HER FAY’S HORRIFIC RERD OF OPPRSG LGBT PEOPLE, AND HER ERSATZ GAY RIGHTS CSA REEKS OF BEG A VANY PROJECT AND PERSONALY CULT.SOME WTERN PROGRSIV NOHELS FALL FOR THIS PKWASHG CHARA. TAKE CANADIAN PRIME MISTER JT T, A VOL ADVOTE FOR LGBT RIGHTS HIS OWN UNTRY, WHO RELEASED A FULSOME STATEMENT UPON FIL CASTRO’S ATH. WHILE ALLOWG THAT THE CEASED TYRANT WAS A “NTROVERSIAL FIGURE,” THE DPH PRETTY BOY ENTHED, “I KNOW MY FATHER WAS VERY PROUD TO LL HIM A IEND AND I HAD THE OPPORTUNY TO MEET FIL WHEN MY FATHER PASSED JO THE PEOPLE OF CUBA TODAY MOURNG THE LOSS OF THIS REMARKABLE LEAR.”THE ATH OF FIL CASTRO IS REASON TO CELEBRATE. BUT TE EEDOM FOR CUBAN GAYS WILL REMA ELIVE AS LONG AS POLIL EEDOM IS NIED TO ALL CUBANS. JAM KIRCHICK
• CASTRO ADMS 'JTICE' FOR GAYS AND LBIANS DURG REVOLUTN

FIL CASTRO’S HORRIFIC RERD ON GAY RIGHTSPINKWASHCONCENTRATN MPS FOR GAYS. POLIL PRISONS WHERE THEY WERE TREATED LIKE ‘BEASTS.’ LISTEN UP, LIBERALS: BEFORE YOU CELEBRATE CASTRO, REMEMBER HIS VICTIMS.JAM KIRCHICKUPDATED APR. 13, 2017 2:17PM EDT / PUBLISHED NOV. 27, 2016 2:23PM EST PHOTO ILLTRATN BY ELIZABETH BROCKWAY/THE DAILY BEASTFIL CASTRO WAS MANY THGS: A REVOLUTNARY, A MUNIST, A GARLO ORATOR. AMID THE FAWNG ENIA RELEASED UPON HIS LONG-OVERDUE ATH AT THE AGE OF 90, SHOULD NEVER BE FOTTEN THAT HE WAS ALSO AN OPPRSOR, TORTURER, AND MURRER OF GAY PEOPLE. “WE WOULD NEVER E TO BELIEVE THAT A HOMOSEXUAL ULD EMBODY THE NDNS AND REQUIREMENTS OF NDUCT THAT WOULD ENABLE TO NSIR HIM A TE REVOLUTNARY, A TE MUNIST ANT,” CASTRO TOLD AN TERVIEWER 1965. “A VIATN OF THAT NATURE CLASH WH THE NCEPT WE HAVE OF WHAT A ANT MUNIST SHOULD BE.” IN THE EY OF CASTRO AND HIS REVOLUTNARY RA CHE GUEVARA—WHO EQUENTLY REFERRED TO GAY MEN AS MARIN, “FAGGOTS”—HOMOSEXUALY WAS HERENTLY UNTERREVOLUTNARY, A BOURGEOIS NCE. TO A TRADNAL LAT AMERIN MACHISMO THAT VIEWED GAYNS PEJORATIVELY, THEY MARRIED AN IOLOGIL FIXATN TREATG AS POLILLY UNSIRABLE. IT WASN’T LONG AFTER CASTRO ME TO POWER THAT POLICE BEGAN ROUNDG UP GAY MEN. IN 1965, THE REGIME TABLISHED PRISON WORK MPS KNOWN AS MILARY UNS TO AID PRODUCTN (UMAP), TO WHICH POSED HOMOSEXUALS, JEHOVAH’S WNS, AND OTHER “UNSIRABLE” ELEMENTS. ALERT TO THIS NEWS, THE MATTACHE SOCIETY—ONE OF THE EARLIT GAY RIGHTS ANIZATNS THE UNED STAT—HELD MONSTRATNS OUTSI THE UNED NATNS AND THE WHE HOE SUCCSIVELY OVER TWO DAYS. FOUR YEARS BEFORE THE WORLD-FAMO STONEWALL RTS, THE WERE TWO OF THE FIRST GAY RIGHTS PROTTS HELD THE UNED STAT. THAT SAME YEAR, ALLEN GSBERG WAS EXPELLED OM CUBA FOR SPREADG MORS THAT RL CASTRO—FIL’S BROTHER AND SUCCSOR AS PRINT—WAS GAY AND CLAIMG THAT GUEVARA WAS “CUTE.” PUTTG GAYS TO NCENTRATN MPS IS NOT THE ONLY PRACTICE CASTRO BORROWED OM THE NAZIS. DURG THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS, ACRDG TO RECENTLY RELEASED GERMAN TELLIGENCE FIL, THIS SO-LLED ANTI-FASCIST ATTEMPTED TO HIRE FORMER SS OFFICERS TO STCT HIS ARMY. THOUGH THE CUBAN REGIME CLOSED DOWN THE UMAPS THE LATE 1960S, NTUED TO REPRS GAY MEN AS IOLOGILLY SUBVERSIVE ELEMENTS. OPENLY HOMOSEXUAL PEOPLE WERE PREVENTED OM JOG THE COMMUNIST PARTY AND FIRED OM THEIR JOBS. ONE OF THE UNTRY’S MOST DISTGUISHED WRERS, REALDO ARENAS, REUNTED THE PRISON EXPERIENCE HE AND UNTLS OTHER GAY MEN ENDURED HIS MEMOIR BEFORE NIGHT FALLS. “IT WAS A SWELTERG PLACE WHOUT A BATHROOM,” HE WROTE. “GAYS WERE NOT TREATED LIKE HUMAN BEGS, THEY WERE TREATED LIKE BEASTS. THEY WERE THE LAST ON TO E OUT FOR MEALS, SO WE SAW THEM WALK BY, AND THE MOST SIGNIFINT CINT WAS AN EXCE TO BEAT THEM MERCILSLY.” GAYS PRISED A SIGNIFINT PORTN OF THE 125,000 CUBANS (“WORMS,” FIL CASTRO’S WORDS) PERMTED TO LEAVE THE ISLAND FOR THE UNED STAT AS PART OF THE 1980 MARIEL BOATLIFT. (THE 1984 DOCUMENTARY IMPROPER CONDUCT, WHICH TELLS THE STORI OF GAY AND STRAIGHT MARIELOS, REMAS ONE OF THE STARKT DICTMENTS OF THE CASTRO REGIME.) WHEN THE HUMAN IMMUNOFICIENCY VIS H THE ISLAND’S GAY MUNY THE MID-1980S, THE REGIME’S RPONSE WAS TO QUARANTE ALL HIV-POSIVE PEOPLE SANARIUMS, REFERRED TO AS “PRETTY PRISONS” BY THE FOUNR OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATN’S GLOBAL PROGRAM FOR AIDS. NO DOUBT ATTUNED TO THE WAY WHICH GAY RIGHTS HAS BEE CENTRAL TO THE AGENDA OF A GLOBAL LEFT CREASGLY SENSIVE TO THE CLAIMS OF INTY POLICS, THE CUBAN REGIME RECENT YEARS HAS TRIED TO FASHN SELF AS BEG THE VANGUARD OF HOMOSEXUAL LIBERATN. IN 2010, FIL CASTRO BELATEDLY ADMTED THAT HIS REVOLUTN’S TREATMENT OF GAYS NSTUTED “A GREAT JTICE.” IT WAS, HOWEVER, A S OF OMISSN RATHER THAN MISSN, TRANSPIRG ONLY BEE HE WAS DISTRACTED, TOO BY FIGHTG OFF YANKEE IMPERIALISTS TO PREVENT THE ATROCI BEG MTED HIS REVOLUTN’S NAME. TODAY, FIL’S NIECE (RL’S DGHTER) MARIELA CASTRO HAS EMERGED AS AN LGBT ACTIVIST, HELMG AN ANIZATN LLED THE CUBAN NATNAL CENTER FOR SEX EDUTN. COCINTALLY, SHE IS THE FOC OF A DOCUMENTARY, MARIELA’S MARCH: CUBA’S LGBT REVOLUTN, PREMIERG MONDAY NIGHT ON HBO. MARIELA HAS BEEN LD BY MANY THE WT AS A FORCE FOR PROGRSIVE CHANGE, AND HER CISN TO PH FOR ACCEPTANCE OF LGBTS MAY BE HELPG ON THE MARGS. BUT NO MATTER HOW MUCH LIFE FOR GAY CUBANS MIGHT HAVE IMPROVED OM THE DAYS OF FORCED LABOR MPS, ’S ALL OCCURRG WH THE NTEXT OF A TOTALARIAN SOCIETY WHOSE CIZENS NNOT VOTE, ARE NIED BASIC EEDOMS LIKE THE RIGHT TO SPEAK OR PROTT EELY, AND NNOT FORM ANIZATNS PENNT OF THE ERNMENT. INED, TELLS YOU EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NTEMPORARY CUBA THAT THE UNTRY’S MOST VISIBLE LGBT ACTIVIST IS THE STRAIGHT DGHTER OF RL CASTRO. MARIELA IS A HARD-RE MUNIST WHO SKIRTS AROUND HER FAY’S HORRIFIC RERD OF OPPRSG LGBT PEOPLE, AND HER ERSATZ GAY RIGHTS CSA REEKS OF BEG A VANY PROJECT AND PERSONALY CULT.SOME WTERN PROGRSIV NOHELS FALL FOR THIS PKWASHG CHARA. TAKE CANADIAN PRIME MISTER JT T, A VOL ADVOTE FOR LGBT RIGHTS HIS OWN UNTRY, WHO RELEASED A FULSOME STATEMENT UPON FIL CASTRO’S ATH. WHILE ALLOWG THAT THE CEASED TYRANT WAS A “NTROVERSIAL FIGURE,” THE DPH PRETTY BOY ENTHED, “I KNOW MY FATHER WAS VERY PROUD TO LL HIM A IEND AND I HAD THE OPPORTUNY TO MEET FIL WHEN MY FATHER PASSED JO THE PEOPLE OF CUBA TODAY MOURNG THE LOSS OF THIS REMARKABLE LEAR.”THE ATH OF FIL CASTRO IS REASON TO CELEBRATE. BUT TE EEDOM FOR CUBAN GAYS WILL REMA ELIVE AS LONG AS POLIL EEDOM IS NIED TO ALL CUBANS. JAM KIRCHICK

The Cuban ernment’s imprisonment of LGBTQ+ Cubans to the labor mps monstrat an act of great opprsn by the ernment toward gay Cubans. Th, the qutn this paper seeks to answer is: How has the Cuban ernment’s treatment of homosexuals durg the Revolutn veloped toward the ernment’s treatment of gay Cubans the prent? This paper divis the analysis of the Cuban ernment’s treatment of gays to three perds.

The First Perd (1965-1979) began 1965 bee this year was when the ernment tablished the UMAPs and imprisoned gays them.

The First Perd ends 1979 bee this year marks a shift the ernment’s treatment of gays through the ernment’s extensn of rights to LGBTQ+ dividuals by removg the regnn of homosexualy as a crime om the Cuban penal . Before this paper begs wh an analysis of each perd, ntextual rmatn on the affairs of the gay muny the Cuban pre-Revolutnary era is provid. Os, a Lat Amerin lerature historian, c the work of Simo, a playwright and novelist, and Garcia Ramos, a poet, to argue that pre-revolutnary arts and lerature Cuba exhibed “openly or discreetly homosexual liftyl” (2002, 92).

CASTRO ADMS 'JTICE' FOR GAYS AND LBIANS DURG REVOLUTN

Os also c the work of Simo and Garcia Ramos to claim that “an evint homosexual sensibily” was felt Cuban mic the 1950s and 1960s (2002, 92). A different perspective on the pre-revolutnary life of Cuban gays is ntend by Arguell, a former profsor of Xinx/Latx Studi, and Rich, a scholar and cric of Lat Amerin and queer films.

Arguell and Rich claim that the pre-revolutnary life of Cuban gays was characterized by harsh reprsn, risn, and vlence wh the fay and tradnal workplac (1984, 686-687).