Political organizations and religious institutions of all kinds, tones, and colors have tried to legislate about what have been (or are) the most appropriate "carnal relations."

An investigative work on homosexuality in several countries, by University of New Mexico professor emeritus of sociology, Nelson Valdés, states that the Bolsheviks in Russia criminalized homosexuality for a short time in 1922. But it has been a general rule that both communists, socialists and capitalist parties always avoid defining guidelines on sexual orientation.

Valdés points out that in the United States, the change came just on December 6, 2011, when US foreign policy manifested itself in defense of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender "rights" in some countries of the world. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton then announced a global LGBT policy, although she acknowledged that she was talking about this subject "knowing that my country's record on human rights for homosexuals is far from adequate."

Until 2003, it was a crime in the United States to be LGBT. Many homosexuals in the United States suffered violence and harassment. For some - among them many young people - harassment and exclusion continue to be daily realities. "Hence, as in all nations, we have a lot of work to do to protect human rights in our country," Secretary of State Clinton said in a December 2011 statement.

Their new international policy promised to open the borders of the United States to give aid and protection to the LGBT refugees and asylum seekers... as long as they came from those countries of which Washington demands regime change.

Practically, the United States had only added one more pretext for its intrusion into the internal affairs of those countries that defied American power.

Shortly afterward, the media "influenced" by Washington within their own nation and around the world unleashed a great campaign on the alleged discrimination against homosexuals in Cuba.

Simultaneously, a media crusade was initiated to demonstrate that "the roots of homophobia in Cuba were in the revolution of Fidel Castro and the new Cuban communist leadership." In 2000, the Cuban leader admitted his personal responsibility for not having promptly corrected the phenomenon, derived from the stubborn policies of years before the revolution.

Until 1973 homosexuality was considered a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and other related professions throughout the hemisphere shared similar attitudes. Homosexuality was considered until very recently a "deviation" and prohibited in the majority of the states of the United States. For its part, Cuba had inherited a macho culture because of long-standing attitudes, both in Spain and in the African cultures that contribute to its national identity.

However, in the last two decades, says Professor Nelson Valdes, the changes on issues of sexual identity and gender have been extraordinary. The Cuban media has played a systematic and concerted role in the education of the general population. Cinematography has been at the forefront in discussing these issues. In the last 13 years, Cuban television has more explicitly explored issues related to alternative sexual behavior.

The openness to openly gay behavior has not been limited to Havana alone. Homophobia is clearly in decline throughout the island as evidenced by the fact that gay and lesbian candidates are being elected to public office. A well-known foreign observer has pointed out that, in this area, "Cuba is much more liberal than the United States and Europe."

What remains to be addressed is how it has been possible for a country characterized by such macho tendencies so entrenched in institutions, politicians, and national culture to have changed so much in the relatively short period of half a century and now that homophobia has become the enemy.

Indeed, the mainstream media and political and social leaders in the country have openly attempted to positively influence the population, in which some of the older people have tried to cling to the sexual and gender roles learned before the triumph of the Cuban revolution. Valdes highlights as a great achievement that Cubans have overcome the idea that machismo, manhood, and masculinity are the expressions of what defines a revolutionary. But, in my opinion, it is the awareness of the necessity of national unity for the defense of the revolution that has played an essential role in such a transcendental task for the progress of the human condition.

July 6, 2017.

- Manuel E. Yepe,

http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/

Exclusive to the daily POR ESTO! Of Mérida, Mexico.

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.