Why Did Cuba Vote in Favor of Executing Gays?
In many respects, Mariela Castro, the daughter of current Cuban President Raul Castro, has become a bit of a global LGBT icon. As the director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX), Castro has fought hard for the advancement of LGBT rights in the country, participating in international festivals to combat homophobia and even going so far as to suggest that Cuba -- a country that used to treat gays with so much disdain, they were sent off to labor camps -- might one day legalize same-sex marriage.So it's quite odd, then, that last month, Cuba decided to vote with nations like Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Uganda for a United Nations resolution that protected the rights of countries to kill people on the basis of sexual orientation. Kind of feels like that soul mate who you know and love, but who one day decides to trip you as a speeding bus drives past.
Responding to criticism that the country has faced in the wake of the vote, Mariela Castro released a statement on behalf of CENESEX about the controversy. To say that it's weak prose might be the understatement of the year.
Loosely translated, Mariela Castro said that her organization recognized Cuba voted for the "let's execute the gays" resolution, but since no law calling for the execution of gays exists in Cuba, it's all cool.
Not good enough. Not by a long shot.
And that's a point made by Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, on her blog Y Generation.
"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," Sanchez wrote. "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."
Bingo. That's what Mariela Castro should have said, in very simple terms. Imagine a statement that looks like this: "The Cuban delegation to the UN gave tacit approval to countries that execute people because of their sexual orientation, and that is wrong, misguided and completely inappropriate for a country working to shed its homophobic past."
Instead, we got a statement worthy of the worst press secretary on the planet.
Send CENESEX and Mariela Castro a message that Cuba's decision to vote with Uganda, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe to support state-sponsored violence against LGBT people is repulsive, and it deserves a hearty condemnation.
Cuba might be working hard to shed its image as a place where repression of LGBT people is considered normal. But with votes like this, they've got a long ways to go before "homophobic" can't be used as an adjective to describe the country.
Photo credit: Howard Dickins
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