Castro and gays

But true freedom for Cuban gays will remain elusive as long as political freedom is denied to all Cubans. [26] Castro explained his reasoning in a interview. In the eyes of Castro and his revolutionary comrade Che Guevara—who frequently referred to gay men as maricones, “faggots”—homosexuality was inherently counterrevolutionary, a bourgeois.

Though the Cuban regime closed down the UMAPs in the late s, it continued to repress gay men as ideologically subversive elements. Alert to this news, the Mattachine Society—one of the earliest gay rights organizations in the United States—held demonstrations outside the United Nations and the White House successively over two days.

Mariela has been lauded by many in the West as a force for progressive change, and her decision to push for acceptance of LGBTs may be helping on the margins. Amid the fawning encomia released upon his long-overdue death at the age of 90, it should never be forgotten that he was also an oppressor, torturer, and murderer of gay people.

The death of Fidel Castro is reason to celebrate. Send it to The Daily Beast here. We join the people of Cuba today in mourning the loss of this remarkable leader.

A Vivid Look at

James Kirchick. Fidel Castro was many things: a revolutionary, a communist, a garrulous orator. To a traditional Latin American machismo that viewed gayness pejoratively, they married an ideological fixation treating it as politically undesirable.

The documentary Improper Conductwhich tells the stories of gay and straight Marielitosremains one of the starkest indictments of the Castro regime. Openly homosexual people were prevented from joining the Communist Party and fired from their jobs. They were the last ones to come out for meals, so we saw them walk by, and the most insignificant incident was an excuse to beat them mercilessly.

During the Cuban missile crisis, according to recently released German intelligence files, this so-called anti-fascist attempted to hire former SS officers to instruct his army. Some Western progressives nonetheless fall for this pinkwashing charade.

Fidel Castro takes blame

No doubt attuned to the way in which gay rights has become central to the agenda of a global left increasingly sensitive to the claims of identity politics, the Cuban regime in recent years has tried to fashion itself as being in the vanguard of homosexual liberation.

Putting gays into concentration camps is not the only practice Castro borrowed from the Nazis. Four years before the world-famous Stonewall riots, these were two of the first gay rights protests held in the United States. Castro's admiring description of rural life in Cuba ("in the country, there are no homosexuals" [25]) reflected the idea of homosexuality as bourgeois decadence, and he denounced "maricones" as "agents of imperialism".

Published Nov. James Kirchick jkirchick jameskirchick gmail. Got a tip? Trending Now. Former Cuban President Fidel Castro says he is to blame for the persecution of homosexuals after the Cuban revolution of Fidel Castro made insulting comments about homosexuality.