Despite Cuba’s initial lapse in recognition, in the last 10 years, the island’s attitude towards sexuality and gender has steadily transformed, with positive steps taken to support the LGBT community in Cuba. This progressive nation may be late to the party, but it has recently started to acknowledge this thriving community and the rights they are so deserving of, encouraging a new generation of social beliefs.
Cuba has come a long way since the 1960s Cuban Revolution; the country today is considered one of the most open-minded Caribbean Islands and has implemented a handful of new laws, movements, and policies in support of the LGBTQ movement.
What has changed for the LGBTQ Community in Cuba?
Since 2008, the country has largely ended any state-sanctioned oppression of the LGBTQ community in a bid to progress towards equal rights. Underneath the guidance of Mariela Castro, daughter of former Cuban leader Raul Castro and Fidel’s niece, the government began fighting for change and made it illegal to discriminate against LGBTQ people. Shortly after, the Cuban health services announced they would begin offering free gender reassignment surgery to transgender citizens under a universal health care programme. A huge feat for the island country.
As years passed restrictions eased on the use of the internet in Cuba, and so LGBT activists took to social media to organise the first visual display of gay pride via a march in Havana’s Parque Central on May 12, where individuals paraded down the El Prado boulevard waving rainbow flags. A move that’s helped to shape a new, more rosy-looking future for gay individuals here.
Each of these events created a significant turning point for the LGBTQ community in Cuba who no longer wanted to suppress their beliefs, but instead celebrate them. The streets started to become a safe space for same-sex couples to walk hand in hand, and this new sense of freedom quickly developed into a vibrant social scene tailored specifically to the community. You could find a few LGBT-friendly bars in the city during pre-revolution Cuba, if you knew where to look for them, with St. Michel, The Dirty Duck and El Gato Tuerto in Havana being a few of the popular haunts. But there were always strict laws that criminalised homosexuality, meaning visiting such venues was always a risk. Today, not only will you find handfuls of LGBT bars dotted across Cuba’s major cities, but entire hotels tailored to the community, such as the grand re-opening and newly dedicated LGBT Hotel Telegrafo in Havana, and the five-star Gran Muthu Rainbow Hotel in Cayo Guillermo – which holds the official crown as the first LGBT hotel in Cuba.
Most recently of all, the Cuban government has revealed plans to legalise same-sex marriage (which remains prohibited on some Caribbean Isles) by publishing a draft of a new and long-awaited family code, which, if passed, proposes to also allow same-sex adoption. After decades of persecution, it’s apparent that social attitudes are finally changing, and the country’s ground-breaking laws and legislations have started waving their flags in support of a rainbow revolution. We can’t wait to see where this journey will take us…
