Reply #5: Well, homosexuals were brutalized in Cuba for decades and decades. [View All]

[David Zephyr]

While there is much that one can admire that Fidel did, and while I can appreciate the complete, justifiable paranoia that the U.S. pushed him into, and while I understand the context of what was going on at that time (Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, Viet Nam from the 1950's up to the 1970's, the Bay of Pigs in 1961, Dallas 1963, Salvador Allende in 1973, and so much more, there is still no glossing over the stark and horrible fact that homosexuals were brutalized for decades under Castro's rule.

Fidel Castro and Che Guevara brilliantly overthrew the horrific puppet government of Fulgencio Batista only to find themselves and the Cuban people isolated and their revolution in peril. To say they had their hands full is an understatement.

Still, anyone who doubts the cruelty dealt to homosexuals all those many years by Fidel's government should begin by simply reading "Before the Night Falls" by Reinaldo Arenas. Read the book, read his words. Yes, there's a very good film, too, but the book will tear your heart out and is only one camera lens, one single story of what my GLBT sisters and brothers endured.

Our GLBT community is always last in line when liberation comes. And we are always first to be sacrificed by those recently liberated themselves. This is no "news" to anyone of us who are considered "queer" by the tribal cultures that still haunt this planet.

Still, I admit that in my life, it is rare for anyone own up to such great harm done to our community. Fidel's confession doesn't make it better, doesn't clean the slate, but clearly his statement is big deal. He was wrong to have done what he did.

"If anyone is responsible, I am. True, at that time I couldn't concern myself with the subject. I was deeply and mainly involved in the October Crisis, the war, the political issues. But in the end, if responsibility must be assumed, I assume mine. I'm not going to blame others," Castro says.

If only more barbaric heterosexuals could muster the decency to utter the same words Fidel did, the world would be, could be better.

Thanks, WillParkinson, for posting this.