Castro Admits Blame for Homophobia

[Shana A]

Castro Admits Blame for Homophobia
by Tommi Avicolli-Mecca, Sep. 07, 2010

http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=8479

Fidel Castro is admitting responsibility for the persecution, in decades past, of queers in Cuba. In an interview with the Mexican publication La Jornada, the former president of the island nation says that in terms of the homophobia of the post revolutionary days, "Si alguien es responsable, soy yo." Which means: "if someone is responsible, it's me."

That persecution included sending gays off to "campos de trabajo militar-agrícola" (military-farming work camps) for the crime of being counter-revolutionaries and to "re-educate" them to their role in Cuban life -- that is, to be straight.

"Yes, they were moments of a great injustice, a great injustice!" Castro says.