It's bright and sunny in the Caribbean pretty much every day, but yesterday, Saturday it was just that little bit more bright and colourful on the streets of Cuba's capital - Havana.
A vast number of gay and lesbian people, took to the streets, some dressed in drag and others sporting multicolored rainbow flags and danced in the city streets. Also marching and dancing with the crowd was the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro, the event organised as part of a celebration aimed at eliminating homophobia around the world and around the island.
Some of the happy marchers played the drums, beating out a loud Latin rhythm whilst others walked on stilts as they made their way down a a street in the hip Vedado neighborhood area of the city, to mark International Day Against Homophobia.
"We have made progress, but we need to make more progress," said Mariela Castro (as seen pictured above, second from left), a campaigner for gay rights on the island and the leader of Cuba's National Sexual Education Center. She is also the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro.
Indeed it's true, Cuba has an awfully long way in accepting homosexuality. Perhaps a lot further than most of it's Caribbean neighbours. Cuba started to change in the 1980's, before that it was still a pretty much homophobic nation, gays could and often were fired for simply being gay, some were imprisoned or sent to work camps. Others fled the isle and went into exile.
However, thanks in part to the work of Mariela Castro's center things are changing, recently, the government has even agreed to include sex change operations for transsexuals under its free national health system. Meetings and workshops before Saturday's march and celebrations addressed many issues for the lesbian and gay community including as adoption by gay and lesbian couples and the legalization of legalize gay marriages.
Mariela Castro has been campaigning for years for gay marriage to be legal on the sunny isle, but so far without much success. Yet, there is a wind of change slowly sweeping through the island, which is opening itself up more and more to outside influences, including more liberal and free European ones.
Jason Shaw
© 2010 Copyright Jason Shaw
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