CUBA: Sexual Diversity - the Rainbow Revolution

[Shana A]

CUBA:  Sexual Diversity - the Rainbow Revolution
By Dalia Acosta

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42445

HAVANA, May 21 (IPS) - Nearly 50 years after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, sexual minorities are at last beginning to feel that their voice is being heard and that they can finally take their place in the movement towards a more just and inclusive society.

"I always wanted to be a part of all this. I can't remember how many times I told my mother: I'm going to make it work; I'm going to make the revolution," Mónica, a young Cuban woman who held a symbolic wedding with her partner Elizabeth in December, in the inner courtyard of the governmental National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX), told IPS.

Meanwhile, Danilo Rivero, who travelled 100 kilometres to attend the celebration in Havana of the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia on May 17, said he had thought that the moment would never arrive when "homosexuals were accorded the status of human beings" in his country.