(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
By Johan Boyden
Their faces look a little tired, but excited. A line of about sixty young people is snaking towards the airline desks on the upper levels of Toronto's Pearson International Airport. They've just got off a bus which left New York at five in the morning. Outside, its humid and hot.
The parade moves slowly. They all have their hands full. Big red wheelie suitcases, green leather pouches, sports bags, little purses. But several are kicking their bags forward, and instead clutching brown cardboard boxes tightly in their arms. On their precious box tops are big black letters: CONDOMS FOR CUBA!
In 1912, the same year as the genocidal "race war" in Cuba, the miracle of the modern condom was invented. Today, condoms are still illegal in countries like the Philippines. In Cuba, doctors welcome condoms, which are in short supply because of the US economic blockade.
In Canada, condoms (while not as accessible as cigarettes) are not hard to find. But studies show that although condoms are in all drug stores and many convenience stores, they are often not clearly marked. In fact, teenagers asking for help finding or buying condoms often get resistance or condemnation from clerks - girls 27 percent of the time (!) and 10 percent for boys. The Allan Guttmacher Institute's 2001 "Survey of Sexual and Reproductive Behaviour," reports that condom access and sex education in Canadian schools, "while improving, remains inconsistent and varies from community to community."
Thus, a new feature of capitalism's law of uneven development - unequal condom access.
Teen sexuality, like all human health, falls easily into the deep rifts of class and national oppression. According to the Guttmacher study, over a five year period 18% of teenage women in Canada living in households with an income less than $30,000 reported a pregnancy. For teenage women living in households with incomes above $30,000 the rate was only 4%! Risks for aboriginal youth are also seen in teen pregnancy and STD rates that are four times higher than among non-aboriginal populations.
Back in the airport line-up the young Americans are talking about their upcoming trip. They are part of the Venceremos Work Brigade, first organized in 1969. A big highlight will be visiting the National Centre for Sex Education (Cenesex), led by sexologist Mariela Castro Espin. The institute has started a debate in Cuba over a new set of proposals to update the country's Family Code to include legal recognition of same-sex relationships and transgender people. Supporters are hoping that the National Assembly will approve the reform package later this year.
A recent article in the US newspaper People's Weekly World reported on this debate: "Cuban law does not currently recognize gay or lesbian couples. According to Castro, the proposals include recognizing same-sex couples and extending to them all the same rights and privileges that opposite-sex couples enjoy, including inheritance and adoption rights. `One cannot continue perpetuating discrimination and exclusion as a value,' she said.
"The rights of gay and lesbian people who are not legally registered as a couple would also be recognized, as would those of opposite?sex unregistered couples. Cenesex drafted the reform proposals. Castro said the reform proposals are being debated in the National Assembly's standing commission for judicial and constitutional matters, as well as among lawyers and other sectors of the population. She said the proposals are drawing both support and opposition. ... Despite the resistance to the proposed changes, Castro said, `There is the political will to eliminate all forms of discrimination in our laws.'
"Castro said the reform package also recognizes the rights of transgender persons, people who for various reasons identify with a gender identity that differs from their original physiological and psychological status. The law would give Cuban men and women the legal right to change their sex after a medical diagnosis. She said that sex-change operations, including hormonal treatments, are already being carried out in Cuba, and medical personnel are being trained to carry out such procedures.
"If the Cuban Communist Party and National Assembly support the reform package, Cuba will become the first country in Latin America to accept same-sex couples and extend to them the same rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples."
Through movies like the 1996 Butterflies on the Scaffold (which documents the real-life creation of a drag nightclub) the world is beginning to see a different picture of sexuality and social acceptance in Cuba. Many of these drag shows are sponsored by the local Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and play to large and wildly enthusiastic audiences.
In future issues, People's Voice will report more about the experience of the Venceremos and the Canadian Che Guevara Work Brigades.