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The controversy generated by the possibility of the inclusion of equal marriage, in the Cuban Constitution, aroused a monster that dozed decades ago and that this time will be harder with the LGBTI + community, which has scarcely managed to stand out or obtain space within society Cuba and the laws of the Island.

Interviewers who prefer not to identify themselves believe that the attempt to include equal marriage in the Cuban Constitution was only a government strategy to divert attention, but "repression and police persecution are still latent," they assure CiberCuba, as well as cases of homophobia They continue to be an issue without solution, which after the Constitutional Referendum have gained more strength within the country.

A group of young people who left the San Juan Methodist Church, the main headquarters of the Christian denomination in Santiago de Cuba, were heard to say: "What is that of a man with a man and a woman with a woman? That is not from God! ", At the end of a cult that recriminalized homosexuality and referred to its" harmful consequences "within society.

"With my own hands, I tore off some posters from the doors of the Christians. If we can not express ourselves freely, they do not either. I love God and I let him guide my steps, but I do not accept that a few men who want to cleanse their sins of the past with the church, want to offend and denigrate me, "Adrián, a young homosexual from Santiago, told CiberCuba.

Homophobic discourses are a recurrent theme within Christian temples, and despite not having contained equal marriage in the Constitution, the possibility that within two years, there is a law included in the Family Code, which can approve the union of two people of the same sex, keeps on alert the representatives of the churches, who do not cease in their speeches against the community.

We must add the little action of LGBTI government organizations in Santiago de Cuba, which focus their activities only on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and not on respect for LGBTI rights.

Las Isabelas, a group made up of lesbian women and the Humanity for Diversity Network (HxD), an organization run by Manuel Lezcay, a child psychologist in the city, who preferentially serves sexual rights, are the only organizations within the eastern province that respond to the interests of the gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual and intersex community. Both organizations are commanded by the state National Center for Sex Education (Cenesex), conducting conferences, debates and health prevention, although these are only kept within four walls and are rarely made public.

In this sense, the propaganda on issues of health prevention, homophobia and transphobia, are often silenced by the activists themselves, justifying their actions, with which the activities carried out avoid confrontations with the church.

Jesús Morán, promoter of health and belonging to the Cenesex, commented to this website that, "in Santiago there is nothing concrete about the LGBT community, and everything is focused on debates and speeches in a classroom, so we are not going to give it more. space to the community, and for people to understand the issue. "

Morán also reported the poor performance of the authorities and the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) in cases of homophobia and its increase after the constitutional referendum. "After the debates over the Constitution, the cases of homophobia grew, and the church maintains a crude repression against us, without anyone coming to defend us, nor Mariela Castro, has done anything."

"A friend, a medical student, when he left for college, was booed and offended on the street by a neighbor of his, who practices the Baptist religion, even came to throw stones. He told me and we went to the police to make the report, but they did not tell us, they said they were going to quote the man, they gave us a paper written in pencil, and that we would be informed of the process, but to date and more than a month of that, we have not received an answer, "said Morán.

In the debates held in the constitutional reform process, the most cited topic was article 68, considered an aberration by many and to which the church responded with an unusual mobilization in Cuba.

At every meeting in the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), workplaces and wherever the referendum was held, it was heard only that, "I do not agree with gays getting married, they already have quite a lot of freedoms ", words repeated until exhaustion and that in many cases even the referees of these debates applauded.

The other articles of the draft constitutional text hardly mattered and the discussions were only summarized in "the union between two people", being in the few minutes that the meetings lasted, gutted, stoned and trampled by the LGBTI + community.

Article 68 was replaced in the final version by 82, which states that marriage is "a social and legal institution that is based on the free consent and equality of rights, obligations and legal capacity of the spouses", making room , in a transitory constitutional text, to a new popular consultation, which will decide the ways to build a marriage.

This keeps the Methodist, Pentecostal and Protestant churches in general that, since the beginning of the discussion, launched a hate campaign, spreading in the most recondite spaces of the city, posters that express: "I am in favor of the original design" and "God created man and woman to believe", which still continue at the doors of many houses of religious and churches in Santiago, without authorities and alleged governmental organizations, vigilant for sexual rights, speak out against bullying from the diverse sex community.


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