News
Editorial: ‘El Orgullo LGBTI+ y la lucha por el matrimonio igualitario en Cuba’
Activistas han llegado a este mes del Orgullo más organizados que nunca
Los colectivos LGBTI+ de Cuba han llegado a este 28 de junio más organizados que nunca antes.
La Plataforma 11M, que es el grupo más activo, hizo gala de fuerza este mes con una besada virtual y un tuitazo a favor del matrimonio igualitario que se reeditará el 11 de cada mes, en referencia al 11 de mayo de 2019, cuando cientos de activistas y sus aliados marcharon en La Habana sin autorización.
El Orgullo que los movimientos LGBTI+ del mundo entero celebraron este domingo es una celebración de la rebeldía, a diferencia de otras conmemoraciones, como la del Día Internacional contra la Homofobia, la Transfobia y la Bifobia ―el 17 de mayo―, que se originó en un gesto institucional de la Organización Mundial de la Salud.
Mientras el 17 de mayo es una fecha que recuerda el triunfo del sentido común sobre los prejuicios culturales del discurso médico, el 28 de junio significa la rebeldía LGBTI+ sin concesiones. El acto de desobedecer.
Ninguna institución, ni siquiera los Estados, tiene derecho a enfermarnos o sanarnos, a igualarnos a todos o rebajarnos a una ciudadanía de segunda clase, según determine la voluntad política.
Las instituciones cubanas, que siguen patologizando los cuerpos trans y discriminando el acceso a la fertilización, por hablar solo de dos gestos reguladores, llevan años retardando la implementación en las leyes de matrimonios LGBTI+ que, no obstante, existen.
En la tradición patriarcal, existir más allá del Estado es un gran atrevimiento. En el mundo heterosexual, es el Estado quien decide qué eres. Se ocupa de reglamentarlo y registrarlo minuciosamente, siempre con el afán controlador y empobrecedor que es consustancial al origen y la práctica de los Estados.
Los maricones y tortilleras y travestis y trans nacimos en esa tradición. Vivimos en la paradoja de negar ese orden y a la vez, como forzosamente, sin más opción, querer asimilarnos a él.
Nosotras no tenemos patria.
Las patrias no son esencias, sino discursos. Y siempre, hasta ahora, ha sido el discurso de un grupo, de una clase o de una ideología que pretende prevalecer.
Ningún ideal de ciudadanía concebido desde los presupuestos nacionalistas tradicionales ha aportado siquiera un trato respetuoso para las comunidades LGBTI+ en Cuba ni en ninguna parte.
No obstante, como fuimos asimiladas a esos Estados sin que nos consultaran y recibimos de ellos, como una asignación incuestionable, un género y una orientación sexual, tenemos derecho a exigirles a estas alturas, al menos, un trato igualitario.
El matrimonio civil es un derecho alcanzado en la mayor parte del mundo desde el siglo XIX por las personas heterosexuales y afiliadas en general a las normas patriarcales.
Es, también, una institución reguladora que establece solamente una relación de esas parejas con el poder efectivo e implica una sumisión. Otras opciones de relacionarse o de constituir familias, por suerte, siguen funcionando al margen del sistema.
Pelear por el matrimonio igualitario, como ha hecho en Cuba la comunidad LGBTI+ con más empeño desde 2018, ha sido, sin embargo, la oportunidad más viable para desmantelar la vieja patria donde hemos vivido como inquilinos hasta ahora.
Los intentos de activismo sustentados por una sensibilidad “oficial”, como el emprendido por Mariela Castro y el Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual durante la última década, fracasaron precisamente por haber nacido sujetos al deseo de asimilarnos a un orden que nos excluye, sin comprender la naturaleza histórica de esa relación opresiva.
Sin revisar y cuestionar abiertamente la homofobia y transfobia de Estado, no solo cultural sino política, ejercida en Cuba hasta el presente, las comunidades LGBTI+ no tienen ninguna oportunidad de conseguir ni siquiera la igualdad sometida que pudiéramos obligar al poder a otorgarnos.
El Orgullo LGBTI+ debería ser la fiesta de quienes ya superaron la tentación de asimilarse y, si van a pelear en el terreno del Estado, fingirán que aspiran a incluirse en las reglas para ganar pequeñas victorias.
El matrimonio igualitario es la meta de ahora. Y hay que lograrlo sin referendo, a pesar de la norma establecida por el parlamento cubano con el propósito de buscar un consenso injusto, por razones no solo prácticas.
El matrimonio igualitario no nos dará una patria, pero hará más habitable la patria que nos impusieron. Con esa certeza hay que ir por él.
Senegal
A dozen Senegalese men arrested for ‘unnatural acts’
Popular journalist and musician among those taken into custody
Senegalese police have charged a dozen men with committing “unnatural acts.”
The New York Times reported Pape Cheikh Diallo, a popular television reporter, and Djiby Dramé, a musician, are among the men who authorities arrested. They appeared in court in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, on Monday.
Le Soleil, a Senegalese newspaper, reported authorities arrested the men on Feb. 6 “for intentional transmission of HIV, unnatural acts, criminal conspiracy, and endangering others.” The newspaper further notes the men have been placed in “pre-trial detention.”
Senegal is among the countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized.
Police in Kaolack, a town that is roughly 135 miles southeast of Dakar, in 2015 arrested 11 people who allegedly engaged in same-sex sexual acts during “a celebration of a gay marriage.” The National Assembly in 2021 rejected a bill that would have further criminalized homosexuality in the country.
Local
Local LGBTQ groups, activists to commemorate Black History Month
Rayceen Pendarvis to moderate Dupont Underground panel on Sunday
LGBTQ groups in D.C. and elsewhere plan to use Black History Month as an opportunity to commemorate and celebrate Black lives and experiences.
Team Rayceen Productions has no specific events planned, but co-founder Rayceen Pendarvis will attend many functions around D.C. this month.
Pendarvis, a longtime voice in the LGBTQ community in D.C. will be moderating a panel at Dupont Underground on Sunday. The event, “Every (Body) Wants to Be a Showgirl,” will feature art from Black burlesque artists from around the country. Pendarvis on Feb. 23 will attend the showing of multimedia play at the Lincoln Theatre that commemorates the life of James Baldwin.
Equality Virginia plans to prioritize Black voices through a weekly online series, and community-based story telling. The online digital series will center Black LGBTQ voices, specifically trailblazers and activists, and contemporary Black queer and transgender people.
Narissa Rahaman, Equality Virginia’s executive director, stressed the importance of the Black queer community to the overall Pride movement, and said “Equality Virginia is proud to center those voices in our work this month and beyond.”
The Capital Pride Alliance, which hosts Pride events in D.C., has an alliance with the Center for Black Equity, which brings Black Pride to D.C. over Memorial Day weekend. The National LGBTQ Task Force has no specific Black History Month events planned, but plans to participate in online collaborations.
Cathy Renna, the Task Force’s director of communications, told the Washington Blade the organization remains committed to uplifting Black voices. “Our priority is keeping this at the forefront everyday,” she said.
The D.C. LGBTQ+ Community Center is also hosting a series of Black History Month events.
The D.C. Public Library earlier this year launched “Freedom and Resistance,” an exhibition that celebrates Black History Month and Martin Luther King Jr. It will remain on display until the middle of March at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library at 901 G St., N.W.
District of Columbia
U.S. Attorney’s Office drops hate crime charge in anti-gay assault
Case remains under investigation and ‘further charges’ could come
D.C. police announced on Feb. 9 that they had arrested two days earlier on Feb. 7 a Germantown, Md., man on a charge of simple assault with a hate crime designation after the man allegedly assaulted a gay man at 14th and Q Streets, N.W., while using “homophobic slurs.”
But D.C. Superior Court records show that prosecutors with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C., which prosecutes D.C. violent crime cases, charged the arrested man only with simple assault without a hate crime designation.
In response to a request by the Washington Blade for the reason why the hate crime designation was dropped, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office provided this response: “We continue to investigate this matter and make no mistake: should the evidence call for further charges, we will not hesitate to charge them.”
In a statement announcing the arrest in this case, D.C. police stated, “On Saturday, February 7, 2026, at approximately 7:45 p.m. the victim and suspect were in the 1500 block of 14th Street, Northwest. The suspect requested a ‘high five’ from the victim. The victim declined and continued walking,” the statement says.
“The suspect assaulted the victim and used homophobic slurs,” the police statement continues. “The suspect was apprehended by responding officers.”
It adds that 26-year-old Dean Edmundson of Germantown, Md. “was arrested and charged with Simple Assault (Hate/Bias).” The statement also adds, “A designation as a hate crime by MPD does not mean that prosecutors will prosecute it as a hate crime.”
Under D.C.’s Bias Related Crime Act of 1989, penalties for crimes motivated by prejudice against individuals based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and homelessness can be enhanced by a court upon conviction by one and a half times greater than the penalty of the underlying crime.
Prosecutors in the past both in D.C. and other states have said they sometimes decide not to include a hate crime designation in assault cases if they don’t think the evidence is sufficient to obtain a conviction by a jury. In some instances, prosecutors have said they were concerned that a skeptical jury might decide to find a defendant not guilty of the underlying assault charge if they did not believe a motive of hate was involved.
A more detailed arrest affidavit filed by D.C. police in Superior Court appears to support the charge of a hate crime designation.
“The victim stated that they refused to High-Five Defendant Edmondson, which, upon that happening, Defendant Edmondson started walking behind both the victim and witness, calling the victim, “bald, ugly, and gay,” the arrest affidavit states.
“The victim stated that upon being called that, Defendant Edmundson pushed the victim with both hands, shoving them, causing the victim to feel the force of the push,” the affidavit continues. “The victim stated that they felt offended and that they were also gay,” it says.
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