Previously Cuba had strict laws that criminalized homosexuality and targeted gay men for harassment. Mariela Castro, with her name and influential status, changed that.
Before CENESEX there was no legal public place where LGBT Cubans could find comfort and safety.
#HANDSOME GAY MEN IN HAVANA FREE#
(In 2008 the government health service began to offer free gender reassignment surgery as part of their services.) So it’s no surprise that gay folks find the headquarters a welcoming place to visit. Their website lists more than one hundred various social and scientific functions and services including HIV testing and counseling by professionals. This event reveals that CENESEX’s work is not just local but international. It offers legal advice and judicial training for professionals.Ī recent conference focused on exploitation of children with UN personnel from the Youth and Gender Partnership of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). My visit to CENESEX including an interview with gay staff member Cesar who gladly described the many functions of the organization, from social gatherings, international conferences to educational forums for teachers and police about human rights and LGBT citizens. The organization is also well known for advocating on behalf of LGBT-gay issues in Cuba. (photo right) Here is the home of CENESEX (Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual) a health, educational, human rights organization headed by Mariela Castro (non-gay daughter of the president Raoul Castro, Fidel’s younger brother). One important sign of progress is found in a lovely residential mansion at 460 Calle 10 in central Havana. They made me feel at home and offered a hearty breakfast each day. This visit (entering Cuba visa-free via Cancun) I stayed in a ‘casa particular’ a private middle-class gay-friendly residence with a guest room (photo left), owned by a retired engineer and his wife, Roberto and Maria.
Infrastructure is in disrepair, many old colonial buildin gs are in shabby condition with a few nicely restored same with the old cars patched up with Russian diesel engines and others–mostly convertibles (photo above)–restored for visitor tours. In addition there are two kinds of grocery stores and restaurants (paladors), again one for moneyed folks and one for poorer locals. For example there are two currencies, one for tourists and one for locals with different values of each which has led to a thriving black market. It is a state stuck in old cumbersome and complex Soviet systems with state control of nearly everything. There has been little industrial or social progress in this socialist country mostly because of inept government control of society and commerce. The appearance of Havana is essentially the same as my previous visit ten years ago. My second visit to Cuba was in 2016 to visit old friends and meet new ones.