La Jornada (Mexico City) - August 5th 2002
Breaking the barriers of Cuban homosexuals
An investigation opens up the argument so as to reevaluate intolerances and taboos
GERARDO ARREOLA CORRESPONDANT
Havana, August 4th. The Ernesto Gonzalez Piug Gathering of Graduates of the Psychology Faculty bursts into applause. It would be for another professional investigation at Havana University, but this one was different: the graduation thesis is the first investigation of its type about homosexual families in Cuba.
The study of Aldnay Maqueira Gonzalez is a scientific novelty, and a ray of light in a serene sky against homophobia. In her conclusions, the principle of the thesis and specialist in family issues, Dr Patricia Ares, said that in Cuba 'we don't know that daily suffering which our society, still homophobic and patriarchal, presents to homosexuals'.
Beyond its kind: six stories of the countercultural family is the the investigation which validates the university degree, but Aldnay has worked for years on the study, one of the most intricate and deep, in a country which, in decades of hostility, reprimanded and penalised homosexuality, but which has begun timidly and slowly to develop a recognition of different sexualities.
'In our country art, literature and the cinemas have been the premier places of advance in addressing the theme, and undemonizing the act,' says Ares. In the theater Cubans can see the fantasies of Paradiso (Paradise) and Fresa y Chocolate (Strawberries and Chocolate). 'However, scientific papers by Cuban authors which present serious study of the theme, simply do not exist. It is for this reason that I think that this thesis will be an essential reference for any Cuban acedemic who is working around homosexuality and the family.'
'From a social point of view, I feel that studies of this type allow for a revision of myths and taboos, immoral judgements against gays and lesbians, incorrect criticisms of 'sexual perversity', and encourage diversity in the identity of the homosexual way of life' adds the tutor. She says that the work of her pupil 'has taken many months of hard work.'
Excited by her grade 'excellent' (Cuban/Spanish marking system == A grade) and the congratulations of her teachers, friends and course companions, the new psychologist told La Jornada that it was not very difficult to convince three gay couples and three lesbian copies in Havana to agree to share their experiences with her. 'They are people who need to express themselves.' They wanted to help her get a good grade, and she gained their confidence to progress from confidential interviews to larger reflective sessions. Only one person backed out at the last minute.
The point of the study, says Aldnay, was to define a homosexual family, a same-sex couple who cohabitate, representative of the larger picture. The interviewees would have to be, additionally, part of a major coexistance of two years, and to have graduated from high school.
The young university student posed one question to all six couples: 'What are you to each other?'
Her conclusions: there is no uniform result. Each case was distinct, and posed a large diversity of manners of relationship.
However, she did notice other tendancies. The couples presented in part the traditional characteristics of a hetrosexual relationship. For example, when there are economic or cultural differences, of hierarchy and responsibility assignment, the role fell to the oldest and intellectually superior partner.
The person in the couple who assumed the feminine role was the most affectionate, more so than the partner who was more sexually masculine. The hetrosexual man is educated but does not express affection and is always ready for sex; she also observed these characteristics in the homosexual couple. In the lesbian relationship they adopt nicknames (like 'fireman') which denote fire in the nature of the individual of the couple who takes the masculine role.
A characteristic was shown in the majority of the families in their need for cohesion in their home life, like a defense against the external social homophobia. They had different individual conduct at home to that used in public, for example at work, where they are guarded against the external threat to the nature of their closed families; they cannot exchange the nature of their lives with anyone in the outside world, another contrast with the Cuban familial norm, which is typically open, and subject to much social interaction. They want the acceptance of non-conventional sexuality, with the acceptance of promiscuity, exhibitionism and inclusion, and are very defensive of loyalty and respect. Their relationships with their relations are generally full of conflict. Ranging from partial acceptance to total rupture, their relationships are sources of permanent suffering. They all recall with regret the moment they came out, their sexual persuasion seen by society as an anormality. The necessity of each partner in the couple to assume a role (husband/wife) dilutes the general feeling of ownership and provokes a conflict.
Dr Carolina de la Torre, reading a copy of the thesis, reported that there was an upsurge in international interest in homosexual studies, and for this reason she considered that the work of Aldnay was an important contribution to this intellectual current. She considered it a meritable defense of the right to diversity, written morally and respectfully. The thesis with facilitate the modernization of sexual perceptions in Cuba, and the 'destruction of stereotypes' along the way to the acceptance of a 'less macho and more deprejudiced' reality, added the academic.
The marking body of the investigation included Drs Lourdes Herrera and Laura Dominguez, as well as the professor Reinaldo Rojas.
Aldnay came across only one case of a couple with children. She concluded that the main problem, common to all six families, is the sexual function of each individual. The boundary of all, with one masculine partner, and one feminine, generated conflict.
The discoveries
In her findings were:
Case 1. Two university graduation. A marked tendency to imitate the hetrosexual model, although there is a flexible distribution of domestic chores. Identity is conflicted. The family of one partner is hostile for trivial reasons. They don't assist with their workmate's parties when they are openly together.
Case 2. Two university graduates of the same subject, and the same age, equal treatment and identification. One days: 'If we returned to our birth, we would be newly women, and we would still return to liking women'. However, they have little social life. 'There is always an extremist and someone who will fight; here (at home) everything is more democratic, we are more relaxed.' Neither has a dominant role.
Case 3. Both of a similar way of thinking, same age. Relationship of then years. Imitation of the patriarchal model. The 'masculine' partner typically fits this profile, working and running the house; assigning and wishing her partner, a housewife, completes the domestic chores. She states: 'She knows that when I return I like to take a bath and relax, because I work hard. I like to see a clean house, and food on the table. Because, after all, I make the money. I labor from six in the morning.' The partner agrees, 'She is my boss, I work because she wants it, because she likes me, and because she deserves it. It is true that we divide our labor.' A total rupture, although distressing, with the respective families. Without social life, except with other homosexuals.
Case 4. The two are medical technicians. Heterosexual model. They explicitly assume the roles of husband and wife. One works, the other cooks and cleans. The first says, 'At times I have had to hit him for objecting.'
The second says 'I have been dreadful; now I am in love and tranquillity.'
Case 5. A university and a high school graduate. Age difference of 21 years. Equal treatment. They define themselves as ' a couple of men who like and love each other'. Sexually: 'Active and passive are dead ends; sex is activity and passivity, giving and receiving all the time. But a dominance can be observed in the older, better educated partner. As a couple, no outside social life.
Case 6. One older, with high school graduation, one younger, with university graduation. Tendency towards equal treatment, which is broken by incomes. Although with lesser education, the older has a larger income. Calls his partner 'my boy'. Pressured by his family, the older had 3 children by two previous hetrosexual marriages, who accept his new situation, unlike his blood family, who reject him.
Translated by Sian Mycock, posted by Walter Lippmann
La Jornada
Mexico D.F. Lunes 5 de agosto de 2002