Same-Sex Marriage Will Never Be in Cuba’s Constitution
By Luis Rondon Paz
HAVANA TIMES – A few months ago, there was an uproar in the media about Cuba’s new draft Constitution. Many of its points touched on aspects relating to Cuban society, and a special emphasis was placed on Art, Private property and LGBT people’s rights.
I will give my opinion about the latter, which is the result of years of researching this disjointed community, and why it was news last week that “The National Assembly announced that the country’s new constitution would erase the proposal to legalize same-sex marriage from its draft.”
I’m convinced that the draft proposal was just another of the Cuban military regime’s strategies to divert people’s attention here on the island and public opinion abroad.
If I’ve learned anything after all these years, it’s just how powerful mass media is in the hands of a totalitarian system like Cuba’s, which has been sowing the seed of hate, discord and fear in Cuban people’s minds for over a half century.
Therefore, it really didn’t come as a surprise when the results of a poll of Cubans’ opinions in relation to same-sex marriage came back negative overall.
This is due to the brilliant and intelligent way that the regime approached the LGBT issue, creating a kind of time bomb in both of its target audiences’ minds: Cubans living in Cuba and foreigners abroad.
(Yet again) it showed progressive countries in the First World that it was a regime that is slowing moving away from its totalitarian and restrictive policies, giving more opportunities to the Cuban people; and that it is a country with a society that tolerates sexual diversity.
Of course, it goes without saying that this is a superficial picture that the media has been responsible for painting with the help of publicity, political propaganda and a lot of public relations and marketing (which hasn’t only worked in Cuba).
This has created a positive public image for the regime as a result. Appearing to be a more open place in the world’s eyes, when in reality, the only thing they have done is mutate a system which is still rigid, totalitarian and psychologically aggressive.
How did the Cuban system manage to cover up its real intentions with this proposal in the draft Constitution?
Well, let me explain in the simplest way I know how:
It’s been proven that you can alter people’s behavior and attitudes using propaganda and publicity. With a well-designed communication strategy and the media controlled by the government, a series of news items was designed and distributed which would have a significant impact on society both via official and alternative media. Making sure that its message would reach as many people possible.
They used repetition in their discourse, overvaluing same-sex marriage, public image and they managed to achieve their main goal: negative attitudes of rejection in different sectors of Cuban society, to the point that public order was even on the verge of being compromised.
The strategy worked like clockwork, and once again, Cuban society were guided to look elsewhere and to forget the state of ruin their country has fallen into.
Sadly, when the Party’s Leadership and their followers announced that the amendment to the draft law would be erased because “all opinions need to be respected”, they washed their hands clean of this issue and closed the door to sexual minorities’ rights in Cuba, yet again.
I believe that the problems Cuba suffers go far beyond legalizing the union of two human beings regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity.
I’m sure that if this damned draft proposal (which never came to light) had been approved with a decree-law a decade ago, at the same time that the anti-homophobia campaign was launched, Cuba’s LGBT community would be living another reality, without a big hoo-ha and religious melodrama. But that wasn’t the government’s intention.
I must admit that I saw this coming from the very moment I caught wind of the rumor this proposal existed, before it was discussed by the National Assembly some years ago.
Today, it’s crystal clear that legalizing same-sex marriage never was, isn’t and never will be in the Constitution. It isn’t in the Cuban regime and party’s interests.
If comunists are pro equality they SHOULD support gay marriage all of their hearts. Equality is equality. I hope that cuban comunists aren’t so backward as american protestants.
OMG, your narrative is frightening but we cannot blame you. You are a victim of communism propaganda…
Thank you for your comment, you have just shown the audience how right I am about the manipulation strategy created by the Cuban regime, its party, and followers.
Understanding virtually any and every issue surrounding the so called LGBT so called community may be simple for you to when you are in the midst of it, but it is more difficult to deal with the various aspects of it when you are OUTSIDE of it. Even the Miami Mafia wouldn’t vote for same sex Marriage I’m sure, and having been a revolutionary myself when at the height of dealing with many bold liberation and newly conceived issues toward liberation i.e. freedom from racism, the women’s movement, the homeless and many phases of Worker’s issues, we would utilize the method of democratic centralism in order to decipher true issues of liberation. Soon and later, as an example while the Black Panther Party’s breakfast program was attacked physically by the police and it’s enemies we now see the that very reactionary government carrying out that same program in all its schools. When it was first brought to us Revolutionaries as an issue for us to support and struggle with, it was presented as a so called gay liberation movement, and we then chose to analise it
and support it mostly on the oppression of it’s victims, but later when with our support this movement had become popular with the politicians who had been closet homosexuals and managed to pass only anti discriminative laws , the word Liberation was suddenly struck from the titles and the NOW called gay movement moved away from liberation issues, as many leaders took this movement in many directions- including in the minds of many the building of a sub- culture inside of U.S. society. This seemed tantamount to members of the Black Panther Party having gone to Cuba in order to build a Party Chapter there. When they were rebuffed by black Cubans whose claim it was that ” we are not black Cubans, we are Cuban citizens” who are part and parcel of a revolution that works to destroy all forms of oppression” So are you telling me that by The Communist Party of Cuba, not making same sex marriage a law, it seeks to discriminate against the so called LBGT community?
Well let me say that were I a member of the Communist party of Cuba, or, Nicaragua, or Bolivia, or any government, and especially if they were revolutionary, I too would vote to not allow the building of sub-cultures of ANY specific group above the revolutionary society. I’ve often said that Cuba is a country with a revolution that is in constant motion because it has had to be on guard of many enemies, and this tells me that the Cuban government THINKS and since the revolution , has always managed to do well in analizing issues by looking at them from all sides and respecting the will of the people. No matter their sexual orientation. To the Cuban people and their leaders none of this comes easy, and if you think that Cuba’s whole National assembly one day sat down and decided to play the games which you claim, then you are no reporter, or journalist- just another gay person bashing a revolutionary government who is doing a great job in keeping all the useless machinations of the United Snakes from reaching their shores………..