[Sandokan]

Can Mariela Castro Explain Away Cuba's Support for the Death Penalty for Gays?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-san ... 90852.html

Yoani Sanchez

I still can't believe that the Cuban delegation at the United Nations added its vote to a group of "countries that include homosexuality as a crime under the law, including the application of capital punishment for that reason, in five of them." I didn't invent the quoted phrase, it comes from a statement published by CENESEX (The National Center of Sex Education) to try to explain this absurdity, to justify the abominable. On a peculiar list, where some of the great suppressors of individual liberties appear, this Island also appears, despite the official discourse that has assured us for some time that abuse of homosexuals is chapter from the past.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2010-1 ... -thumb.jpg
It goes without saying that no one consulted that no one consulted Cubans before ratifying -- in our name -- a resolution that gives carte blanche to the death penalty for reasons of the victims' sexual orientation. Not a single word is said by the official press, no transvestites have been able to go out and protest in the Plaza of the Revolution or in front of the Foreign Ministry to demonstrate their displeasure with this act of political expediency. Initially, it was the Benin delegation that pushed for a change in the resolution about extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions in the world; two weeks ago the UN didn't remark on whether the accused faced this situation for loving a person of their own gender. Frightened, we witness the circle joined by the intolerant, the complicity established between the doctrinaire, the silence before violations committed by others, to buy silence for when they themselves will have need of it.

It is sad that an institution like CENESEX that has worked to promote respect for diversity, engages in verbal acrobatics so as not to call things by their name. Mariela Castro, Director of CENESEX, cannot take cover behind the terse words of a statement where one finds no condemnation proportional to the mistake committed by our delegation to the UN. This coming Sunday she will appear on a national television show, Journeys to the Unknown, to present a documentary that touches on the theme of tolerance towards gays and lesbians. I think that would be a good time to explain to us why her response has not been stronger, why her silence has the ring of an accomplice.

In order to help the LGTB group to put an end to their misery under Castros’ tyranny, is by the LGTB groups in other countries of the world to avoid being easy prey by falling into similar predicaments of authoritarian political systems. They should be aware of the conditions of their counterparts trapped in Cuba. Letting the truth about the Cuban LGTB be known will help them in their struggle for their rights.

[USB]

There's a biblical verse that applies to gays that Mariela Castro was trying to invoke first time we met in New York. "Act decently"; "Do not engage in homosexual acts". She was furious when somebody taught her these verses. She was aiming at promiscuosities given that she was raised a decent child and a God-believer. Sodomy is a sin, she singled out those who attend Pride Parade. True, act decently and God will be pleased with you..I bet the Right wingers and the racists would emulate her too in their treatment of gays. Well, as for me, I do not care. Who am I to judge?

[Sandokan]

Mariela Castro stated to the international press that in Cuba there is debate on sexual diversity. Homosexuality, however, remains a taboo for Cuban society and a problem silenced by the government and its mass media. The regime vote in the UN in support of the death penalty for gays is proof of it.

[Sandokan]

Castro brothers’ draconian anti-homosexual policies are coherent with their enslavement of the Cuban people. These policies share a totalitarian underpinning that bars basic human choice, like where you can live, whom you can love, etc. A regime that reduces human beings to personal property is hardly willing to allow manifestation of particular affection.