<p>Gay wrer Realdo Arenas was persecuted by Castro's homophobic regime. Now a film about his life has outraged Fil's followers. By Peter Tatchell</p>
Contents:
GREAT WRERS WHO WERE GAY
* cuban gay writer *
The followg year, Arenas was persecuted by the Castro regime for his openly gay liftyle. He was openly gay and often wrote about his life as a homosexual man.
He is bt known for his works that al explicly wh transvtism and male homosexualy. While his five-novel sequence entled Pentagonia nstut a sharp crique of the Cuban ernment’s thorarian character regardg ternal dissince and disagreement, his tobgraphy Ant que anochez (Before Night Falls) is a powerful acunt of the difficulti of beg a homosexual wrer Cuba and the absolute impossibily of beg outsi Cuba. ”Disney sued DeSantis April, claimg that the ernor’s cisn to strip the pany of ntrol of the special district ntag s signature theme park was retaliatn for s opposn to Florida’s “don’t say gay” bill, which forbids stctn on sexual orientatn and genr inty krgarten through third gra.
• Realdo Arenas (1943-1990), openly gay poet, novelist, and playwright, thor of Ant que anochez • Silvtre Balboa y Troya Quada, (1563-1649), thor of Espejo Paciencia (1608), first known Cuban narrative poem • Miguel Bar, anthropologist and ttimonialist • Anton Benez-Rojo (1931-), thor and cric • Pedro Luis Boel (1931-1972), poet and dissint • Mariano Bll (1891-1956), postmorn poet • Lydia Cabrera (1899-1991), anthropologist and poet • Guillermo Cabrera Infante (1929-2005), novelist, thor of Tr trist tigr • Alejo Carpentier (1904-1980), novelist, thor of El reo te mundo • Julián l Casal, 19th century poet • Ernto Juan Castellanos (1963-), English translator, journalist, and thor of Los Beatl en Cuba: Un viaje mági y misterso, El sargento Pimienta vo a Cuba en un submaro amarillo, La guerra se aba – si tú quier, and John Lennon en La Habana wh a ltle help om my iends • Daína Chaviano, novelist and short-story wrer • Enrique Cil (1938-), novelist and sayist, thor of El Imper La Habana • Edmundo Dno, novelist, thor of Memorias l Subsarrollo • Jús Díaz (1941-2002), novelist, filmmaker, and tellectual, founr of the fluential cultural magaze Encuentro • Eliseo Diego (1920-1996), poet • Eliseo Alberto Diego, novelist, son of Eliseo Diego (above) • Norberto Fuent (1943-), thor and journalist • Gertdis Gómez Avellaneda (1814-1873), novelist, playwright, and poet, thor of Sab (1842) and Baltasar (1858) • Nilás Guillén (1902-1989), Ao-Cuban poet • Pedro Juan Gutiérrez (1950-) “dirty realist” novelist, poet, and pater • José María Heredia y Heredia (1803-1839), poet • Carilda Oliver Labra (1924-), poet • José Lezama Lima (1910-1976), novelist and poet, thor of Paraíso • Dulce María Loynaz (1902-1997), poet • Roberto Manzano (1949-) poet • José Martí (1853-1895), poet, journalist, cric, translator, and patrt • Nancy Morejón (1944-), Ao-Cuban poet • Juan Cristobal Napol Fajardo (1829-1862), wrer of Siboneyista poetry • Heberto Padilla (1932-2000), poet • Leonardo Padura Fuent (1955-), novelist and journalist • Virgil Piñera (1912-1979), thor, playwright, poet, short-story wrer and sayist • Caridad Piñeiro (1958 –), thor of paranormals, romanc and women’s fictn • José Ignac Rivero (1920-), exiled journalist • Raúl Rivero (1945-), dissint poet and journalist • Severo Sarduy (1937-1993), neobaroque poet • Ana María Simo, playwright, sayist and lbian activist. Old propaganda, slanrs, li and half-tths about the Cuban revolutn and s treatment of gays - the are the accatns ma agast Julian Schnabel's new film, Before Night Falls, by the Cuba Solidary Campaign. It plans to picket cemas wh leaflets nouncg the movie as "old bbish a new b" general release om next Friday, Before Night Falls tells the life story of the celebrated Cuban novelist Realdo Arenas, who was persecuted by the Castro regime bee his wrg and homosexualy fied socialist orthodoxy.