{"id":11568,"date":"2019-01-08T14:23:09","date_gmt":"2019-01-08T08:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pahichan.com\/?p=11568"},"modified":"2019-01-08T14:24:17","modified_gmt":"2019-01-08T08:39:17","slug":"removal-of-marriage-from-new-cuba-constitution-divides-lgbti-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/removal-of-marriage-from-new-cuba-constitution-divides-lgbti-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Removal of marriage from new Cuba constitution divides LGBTI community"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Kathmandu (Pahichan) January 8 – The LGBTI+ community remains divided after the National Assembly modified the marriage amendment in the draft of the new constitution. Part of it defends the yes vote and supports the official campaign, while another group says it will vote against the constitution.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Dec. 22, the same day the Cuban Parliament in Havana ended sessions where changes to the draft Cuban constitution were approved, a group of young people discussed them in Vidal Park in Santa Clara, 300 kilometers from the Cuban capital.<\/p>\n

The decision to exclude Article 68, which defined marriage as \u201cthe union of two people,\u201d from the future constitution was received with bewilderment in the city, which is known in the country for its inclusive spaces for the LGBTI+ community.<\/p>\n

According to the National Assembly, the suppression has the goal of \u201crespecting all opinions,\u201d an argument that seems to echo the anti-marriage equality campaign from various evangelical churches.<\/p>\n

Mariela Castro Esp\u00edn had referenced to the \u201cblackmail\u201d of these religious groups in a recent interview, although nothing suggested the constitutional text would be modified for this reason and marriage would be subject to another referendum, as part of the Family Code, under a two year deadline.<\/p>\n

Castro Esp\u00edn directs the National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX) and is also the country\u2019s most well-known official LGBTI+ rights activist. Her work has been criticized because it intends to work the agenda of a minority that has been historically marginalized into the political discourse of the same government that has persecuted it and has not to this day offered reparations.<\/p>\n

Ram\u00f3n Silverio is another activist and cultural promoter who directs El Mejunje, a community center known across the country for its drag shows.<\/p>\n

Silverio feels that the LGBTI+ community\u00a0\u201cdid not do much to defend (Article 68).\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no counterpart,\u201d he admitted. \u201cThe churches had a lot of influence, combined with the homophobia that exists in society regarding the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marriage now appears to be described in Article 82, a passage written in technical and ambiguous language with the declared goal of not closing the door on the legality of partners of the same sex and gender, despite the controversial referendum option.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are putting the rights of the most vulnerable people and groups in a somewhat critical position when taking them to a popular referendum,\u201d warned Deputy Luis \u00c1ngel Ad\u00e1n Roble during Parlament\u2019s last session of 2018.<\/p>\n

Ad\u00e1n Roble is the only deputy with a speech that mirrors LGBTI+ activism. In the closing session, however, he merely confirmed his support for the change and invited citizens to vote in favor of the draft constitution.<\/p>\n

\n
Dagnis Romero, vice coordinator of the TransCuba Network in Villa Clara Province, spoke without hesitation of what she considers a \u201clack of respect.\u201d She is referring to the Article 68 modifications and the announcement of another referendum to approve the Family Code.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

TransCuba is a group of transsexuals affiliated with CENESEX and lead by Mal\u00fa Cano, a trans woman who frequently appears with Mariela Castro in the media and on social media.<\/p>\n

Dagnis is 36-years-old and says she was deported to the island after visiting some Latin American cities. \u201cI left this country because of the rampant discrimination that exists, I have not been able to operate, I have not been able to do anything,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

Thirty-nine sex-reassignment surgeries have taken place in Cuba over the last decade, according to the Trabajadores newspaper in the middle of this year. A diagnosis of \u201cgender dysphoria,\u201d a requirement that part of the international trans advocacy movement rejects, is still required in order to reach the operating room.<\/p>\n

Romero categorizes the country as \u201cvery late\u201d and says living according to her gender identity leaves her feeling isolated everyday.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow they are taking away from me the possibility of forming a home,\u201d she says in relation to the draft article.<\/p>\n

Ram\u00f3n Silverio, nevertheless, assures \u201ca large part of this community has never been interested in marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand why there is this setback,\u201d said Abel Ra\u00fal, a young man with Christian parents who moved to Villa Clara from eastern Cuba.<\/p>\n

Mariela Castro Esp\u00edn, (a member of the National Assembly) since the beginning of the debates has insisted that \u201cthere is no setback\u201d and everything is due to a misinterpretation of the parliament\u2019s first communiqu\u00e9 that was published on Twitter on Dec. 18.<\/p>\n

CENESEX launched a social media campaign during the parliamentary sessions with the hashtag #IVoteYes and the slogan \u201cRewrite happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Castro Esp\u00edn was the furthest away during parliament\u2019s closing session and attributed the intention of numerous people to vote against the draft constitution over the exclusion of Article 68 the announcement of another popular consultation exclusively on marriage to the \u201ccounter revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raisel Nu\u00f1ez Medina, another one of the young people who spoke with Tremenda Nota in the park in Santa Clara, considers the debates around marriage \u201cwere as if it was something abnormal, and there were thousands of more important things to discuss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know couples who have lived in the same home for more than 30 years and had put their hopes in their legal union to make their future plans,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Ram\u00f3n Silverio, who agrees with CENESEX\u2019s position, supports Article 82 and wants to influence El Mejunje\u2019s clientele in order to get more votes in favor of the draft constitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince Sunday we have been conducting a campaign that includes exhaustive explanations of the article,\u201d he declared to Tremenda Nota. \u201cI am convinced that the majority is going to vote yes in the referendum.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor its part, an LGBTI+ group from Placetas, a city near Santa Clara, on Dec. 25 made an announcement on Facebook that left out propaganda from the yes and no (factions) and reflects on the inconsistencies of official activism.<\/p>\n

The group considers that the version of the marriage article approved by the parliament \u201cdoes not satisfy the demands of the LGBTI communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome activists were controlled by indications of waiting later,\u201d said a document signed by CENESEX collaborators that denounced the claims.<\/p>\n

The revelation seems to allude to instructions sent by the institution (CENESEX) to its \u201ccommunity networks\u201d in order to avoid answering questions or public acts against the homophobic campaign that various evangelical churches have promoted. The declaration suggests Placetas LGBTI will vote in favor of the new constitution, although its members also demanded the elimination from the constitutional text the provision that \u201cauthorizes\u201d the right to marriage equality to go to a referendum.<\/p>\n

Source :\u00a0washingtonblade<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kathmandu (Pahichan) January 8 – The LGBTI+ community remains divided after the National Assembly modified the marriage amendment in the draft of the new constitution. Part of it defends the yes vote and supports the official campaign, while another group says it will vote against the constitution.
\nOn Saturday, Dec. 22, the same day the Cuban Parliament in Havana ended sessions where changes to the draft Cuban constitution were approved, a group of young people discussed them in Vidal Park in Santa Clara, 300 kilometers from the Cuban capital.
\nThe decision to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":11569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,621,490,11],"tags":[502],"class_list":["post-11568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-issue","category-news","category-slider","category-world","tag-lgbti"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11568"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11571,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11568\/revisions\/11571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}