Identidades in English No 3, September 2014 | Page 31

crimes, but had failed to show unconditional loyalty or were inconvenient for the revolutionary
process. Without distinction, they were subjected
to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
By the 1960s, teachers and professors who were
known or suspected homosexuals were thrown
out of the educational system. Those with different sexual preferences were demonized: they
were marginalized by an immovable, intransigent
and repressive thing euphemistically known as
the Revolution.
In 1980, during the massive Mariel exodus, going
before a police unit and declaring one’s self to be
homosexual was enough to get you included
amongst the ‘scum’ the government allowed to
leave by the hundreds in vessels from the north
that came to find family members and friends.
That condition was equivalent to being like those
who were condemned for bloody or other sorts of
crimes, who together with the real or false homosexuals were allowed to leave out of convenience.
They want us to believe that the seeds for the National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX)
goes back to 1962, but where were its members
and what did they do against the horrors of the
UMAPs and other aggressions against people
solely for their sexual preferences, both during
the sixties or later decades?
What did Vilma Espín, who they want to credit
with the rise of the ‘official’ (government) movement on behalf of homosexuals, do all those
years?
Official acknowledged civil society and homosexuality
The Cuban State’s vocation for total control permeates all so-called mass and political organizations. Their functions are reduced to mechanisms
for transmitting the supreme will of the leader of
the moment. The CENESEX is no different. It,
too, suf