First Gay Wedding in Cuba Pics
Photo Feature by Jorge Luis Baños/IPS
HAVANA TIMES, August 13 — The first homosexual wedding in Cuba took place on Saturday, with the date of Fidel Castro’s 85th birthday especially chosen by the couple.
While same-sex marriage is not legal in Cuba, the bride, Wendy Iriepa, a transsexual, now has her ID card listing her as a woman. Her gay husband is Ignacio Estrada a gay rights activist.
The witnesses for the wedding were the well-known critics of the Cuban government bloggers Yoani Sanchez and Reynaldo Escobar.
“This is not a provocation. It’s an acknowledgment,” Estrada told AFP.
“It’s wonderful. It will be the first ‘gay’ wedding in Cuba. I don’t want this to be seen as a political act. Even if it’s a gift to Fidel, I’m not worried about what the government will think,” Iriepa told the press.
Wendy had a sex change operation four years ago thanks to CENESEX, the Sex Education Center led by President Raul Castro’s daughter Mariela Castro, an advocate of LGBT rights.
CENESEX is trying to convince the Cuban parliament to legalize same sex marriage.
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http://www.cenesexualidad.sld.cu/uniones-de-parejas-homosexuales-cubanas-en-manos-de-ministra-de-justicia is the link to the CENESEX article (in Spanish) mentioned by Nancy.
There is so much wrong with this “article”. First and foremost is that this is not the first wedding involving a person who changed their gender in Cuba. It seems that the author just repeated a press release from whoever orchestrated this “show” without checking with CENESEX or anyone to verify the story or to get any kind of background info on the couple or anything at all really. This is nothing more than a publicity release full of disinformation. I think HT should write a retraction or a follow up to set the record straight. CENESEX has written a response that clarifies the matter that was disseminated by W. Lippman’s Cuban News list. HT should publish it in the name of credibility.
It would seem that those who consider this a “homosexual” wedding are denying, by this consideration, that Wendy Irieta is now a woman.
If Ignacio Estrada is a man and Wendy Irieta is woman, it’s not a homosexual wedding, but a wedding that is traditionally heterosexual. Some people need to rethink this one!
If Cuba should legalize same-sex marriage, as it certainly should, it would be a blow against imperialism.
This is a very confusing situation. Wendy is a woman and her husband Ignacio Estrada defines himself as a gay. Wendy changed from a man to a woman. The husband has apparently changed from a gay to a straight. I am all for fluidity in sexuality and support all forms of diversity. But there’s something wrong with this picture. The husband is an opponent of Cuba and well connected to rightwing Cuban Americans. Ignacio Estrada regularly and effectively manipulates North American press to get attention for broad anti-Cuba crusades “as a gay” — just as he has done with his wedding and his anti-Cuba wedding party guest list.
I wonder if this marriage is based on love or grandstanding. Perhaps Ignacio Estrada has undergone gay conversion therapy. That would make sense because the rightwingers he associates with in Miami are totally against homosexuals, indeed LGBTs in general — they follow a straight-and-narrow course. Maybe they funded his transition. Maybe he agreed to do so, so as to continue to receive support from moneyed South Floridians. The people of Cuba paid for Wendy’s transition from boy to girl. Cuba is against efforts to turn gays into heterosexuals believing it a primitive and backward practice. That is the domain of Republicans and fundamentalists abroad.
When a man and a woman get married like this, how does it become a “homosexual marriage”?