"How American Evangelicals Helped Stop Same-Sex Marriage in Cuba"

[Quetzalcoatl]

How American Evangelicals Helped Stop Same-Sex Marriage in Cuba

The Evangelical church has gained a huge amount of political power in Cuba, and LGBTQ people are dealing with the consequences.

Earlier this year, Cuban psychologist Dachelys Valdés Moreno and her American-born wife, Hope, welcomed their baby boy into the world. Although they live in Havana, they opted to give birth—as well as, nine months earlier, undergo the process of IVF—in the U.S. They couldn’t do it at home: The Cuban government still doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage.

A year ago, most LGBTQ Cubans would have been eagerly anticipating the expected legalization of same-sex marriage. In July 2018, the Cuban National Assembly proposed a new constitution that included amended language (Article 68) that would make same-sex marriage legal. But that December, the government withdrew the amendment from the draft, largely because of strong backlash from evangelical churches. This means, along with marriage, that assisted reproduction is still only available to heterosexual couples in Cuba; single women are excluded as well.

...

Today, religions of all types are booming in Cuba. An estimated seven to 10 percent of Cubans are Protestant or evangelical. The recent surge in evangelicalism coincides with the threat of another economic crisis, as Cuba's fortunes are tied to those of Venezuela.

But while many Cubans are suffering from the economic downturn, churches are often less vulnerable: Most Cuban evangelical churches have a “sister church” in the U.S. that supports them financially and, as Cuban LGBTQ rights activist and Baptist seminary student Adiel González Maimó emphasized, “That money comes with ideological conditions.”

And, while homophobia is nothing new in Cuba, the organized opposition to LGBTQ rights and pressure on the Cuban government to roll them back in the past year echoes methods of fundamentalist groups in the U.S. that are uncommon in Cuba, where public space is tightly controlled—and perhaps even more effective there because of it.

[daniel1948]

My experience is way out of date, but traditionally there was a lot of homophobia among latinos. I heard a story about some Mexicans stopping a black guy from raping a white guy in prison. The Mexicans had no love for the white guy, but their homophobia trumped everything else. I believe the story about the evangelicals pushing for repression of LGBTQ folks in Cuba. But they probably had an easy time convincing the Cubans. Catholicism is deeply rooted in Latin America, and this is an issue the Catholics and the evangelicals agree on.

[arthwollipot]

Developing countries still developing. News at 10.