“Frameline—the world’s longest–running and largest showcase of queer cinema—announced Frameline46: The San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, taking place June 16–26, 2022.
“With this year’s theme, ‘The Coast is Queer,’ Frameline46 will expand its footprint with screenings taking place in-person at a record number of theaters and venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including the Castro Theatre, Roxie Theater, SFMOMA, and AMC Kabuki in San Francisco; the New Parkway Theater and Landmark’s Piedmont Theatre in Oakland; and more.
“Tickets for Frameline46 will go on sale to the general public beginning Wednesday, May 25, 2022. For more information, visit www.frameline.org.
“Highlights of Frameline46 include:
Over 90 films spanning narratives, documentaries, and shorts, and representing more than 30 countries, including Brazil, Norway, Georgia, Australia, Chile, and more!
A national Streaming Encore available to cinephiles anywhere in the United States from June 24–30, 2022.
Frameline Talks, a curated series of live panels and thought-provoking Q&As with filmmakers, celebrity guests, and community personalities.
A glittering Opening Night Gala featuring a silence auction and Centerpiece Party!
Frameline Awards, including First Feature Award and Audience Awards. This year, Frameline is adding awards for Best Narrative Short and Best Documentary Short, as well as presenting the inaugural Out of the Silence Award which will be given to a film that highlights brave acts of visibility.
A vibrant new website to improve the Frameline46 experience.
This Pride Month, following two years of subdued celebrations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sonoma County residents are getting ready to don their rainbow garb and spread the love at in-person events and festivals.
Sparked by the 1969 Stonewall uprising in Manhattan and the first Pride march in New York City in June the following year, LGBTQ+ pride celebrations have long been held in June across the United States to recognize the impact of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people and the intolerance they often face.
Sonoma County has its own unique LGBTQ+ history. While there has long been a prominent LGBTQ+ community in the county, it took years — and several failed attempts — for activists to get supervisors to recognize Pride Week in May 1992.
Today, pride flags fly high and LGBTQ+ life is celebrated year-round in Sonoma County, not just in June. But there are also special events planned to honor the month this year. Here’s what the county has in store for this year’s Pride Month.
June 1-5: Sonoma County Pride Parade and Festival
After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, Sonoma County Pride will hold its 35th annual Sonoma County Pride Parade and Festival in downtown Santa Rosa on June 4, with other special Pride events happening throughout the week. The theme of this year’s celebration is “We Are Family,” to salute bonds in the community.
The organization will kick off Pride Month with a pride flag raising on top of the Rosenberg Building at 11 a.m. Wednesday, June 1, on the corner of Mendocino Avenue and Fourth Street in Santa Rosa.
Sonoma County Pride and sponsors will host a Pride Movie Night with a free showing of the romantic comedy-drama “Love, Simon” starting at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 2, in Santa Rosa’s Old Courthouse Square.
From 4 to 8 p.m. on Friday, June 3, there will be a Pride Happy Hour in Old Courthouse Square, featuring DJ Rotten Robbie and performances by singer-songwriter-guitarist Melissa Levi and modern jazz singer Spencer Day.
The Pride Parade will run along Fourth Street in Santa Rosa from 11 a.m. to noon on Saturday, June 4, with the festival kicking off at noon and continuing until 5 p.m. in Old Courthouse Square. Brent Farris and Debbie Abrams of KZST will be the parade’s masters of ceremonies and “Jeopardy!” champion Amy Schneider will be the grand marshal. Honorees include Sonoma County LGBTQ+ historian Tina Dungan, owner of the LGBTQ+ tour and event company Out In The Vineyard Gary Saperstein, Healdsburg Mayor Osvaldo “Ozzy” Jimenez and Santa Rosa Mayor Chris Rogers. Parade floats and performances will be judged by a panel, and awards will be presented on the Festival Stage at 2 p.m.
Local LGBTQ+ social networking group Santa Rosa GayDar will host a Reunion Queer Dance Party from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday, June 4, at La Rosa Tequileria & Grille on Fourth Street. A drag show will begin at 10:30 p.m. featuring hosts and drag queens Lolita Hernandez, Maria Twampson and Shania Twampson, with DJ Ron Reeser. The party and show is for adults age 21 and older. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased on Eventbrite at bit.ly/3PJgydO.
A Wigs & Waffles Drag Brunch will be held starting at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 5, in the 630 Park steakhouse at Graton Resort & Casino in Rohnert Park. A drag show will begin at 11:30 a.m. with DJ host Juanita MORE! and performances by Rahni NothingMore, Mary Vice and Princess Panocha. Tickets are $85 and can be purchased on Eventbrite at bit.ly/3PEVWmW.
RuPaul’s Drag Race star Rock M. Sakura will host a Pink Pool Party from 1 to 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 5, at Graton Resort & Casino. Entertainment will be provided by DJs Lady Char, Hector Fonseca and Jimmy Hits, with special guest Natascha Bessez. General admission is $30, with other ticket options for poolside daybeds and cabanas with Champagne, fruit plates and amenities packages. Tickets are available on Eventbrite at bit.ly/3GiDcVX.
Healdsburg’s Cāpo Creek Winery will host a pride celebration on its estate with wine, food and special drag performances from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 4. Tickets are $50 and can be purchased at capocreekranch.com/product/Event–Pride.
A gay music teacher in Iowa was forced to resign from his high school after a blackmailer threatened him.
Matthew Gerhold began working at Valley Lutheran High School in Cedar Valley, Iowa last year. Although he told school officials that he was gay before he was hired, they later compelled him to resign or face termination after he was blackmailed.
Gerhold’s phone was hacked in January 2022 and the hacker blackmailed him by threatening to share private information about his sexuality publicly. Gerhold alerted the school about the hack and the blackmail, then resigned from his position at the high school after being told he would be fired following a school board meeting anyway, according to the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
Just after he reported the attempted blackmail, photos from his phone were posted to the school’s Facebook page. He was called to an administrator’s office and put on leave.
Gerhold had initially been told he could not disclose his sexuality or even date while employed by the school.
He said that he believes the school and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod view homosexuality as a problem and a choice, not an “involuntary attraction to one sex or another.”
“My sexual identity has absolutely nothing to do with my career in music and my love for music,” he said. “If the church as a whole doesn’t want to use me for whatever they are striving to achieve, then I shall go somewhere else that would love to have me to live out my vocation for others.”
After his resignation, he applied for and was granted unemployment benefits.
The school appealed that decision and a hearing was held on May 2 in front of Administrative Law Judge Blair Bennett, who ruled that Gerhold had a right to unemployment benefits as he had not violated in any way the conditions of his employment, nor had he been accused of workplace misconduct.
The “argument breaks down to [Gerhold] being told he would no longer have a job because of the actions of a third party, not controlled by [Gerhold], completely outside of work,” Bennett ruled.
A pair of vans, cosmetically weathered but carrying an unmeasurable amount of personality along with over 12,000 lbs of food, medicine, and hygiene supplies, were used by a motley group of heroes to deliver critical supplies to two towns still under attack in northeast Ukraine.
Agatha Williams, a metal fabricator from Denver, Colorado turned front-line aid worker aiding civilians amid the Russian invasion, joined the relief effort for the first time. Piloting one of the vehicles, Williams, who goes by the pronouns they/them and identifies as queer, left the United States for the first time to make a difference in the lives of those suffering through the daily horrors of war.
Members of the self-styled Renegade Relief Runners, 3XR for short, have been driving those vehicles across the war-ravaged countryside for the better part of two months, providing humanitarian aid in places that few international groups know exist.
On a recent trip to Zolochiv, which has a population of about 45,000 when counting the surrounding villages, the 3XR team rolled in, making their second trip in two weeks to the local administrative center.
Agatha Williams handing out supplies in Kharkiv Oblast.
With tattoos running down the sides of their face, and stretched holes where gauges once sat in their ears, Williams cuts a striking figure, especially among the usually staid Ukrainian populace. On the day of the delivery to Zolochiv, they and their fellow members of the 3XR were given a heartfelt welcome by the town’s vice mayor. After offloading the first 4,000 pounds of food to residents dealing with the worst kind of food insecurity, Williams and the crew moved on to the local hospital.
After taking an in-depth tour around the destroyed medical complex, the chief doctor asked Williams and another 3XR member, Ken Brady from Oregon, to inspect the hospital’s generator system. As the sounds of artillery explosions thundered in the air above them, they tried to figure out why the generator was emitting diesel fumes.
Seeing how well they worked together, how did Brady think his openly LGBTQ associate was being received in the seemingly conservative nation?
“I admit some trepidation myself, about being out of place as a snarky, tattooed Asian-American, but together we have experienced zero prejudice that I’m aware of,” Brady responded.
He continued, “Ukraine needs and appreciates all help, and each of us is here to provide exactly that. In addition to Agatha, many of my LGBTQ friends at home will be equally surprised and, I hope encouraged, by the presence of a transgender reporter asking this question. Traveling to some of the hardest hit areas with members of the queer community has shown me Ukraine is not messing around, and that help is welcomed despite identity.”
On 3XR’s second day of deliveries, the mission took them west to Parkhomivka. This time more than 8,000 pounds were offloaded under the guidance of the town’s relief coordinator while the mayor came by to express his appreciation for the group’s lifesaving work.
Again, Williams was in the middle of the action.
Agatha Williams carrying supplies in Parkhomivka.
While directing logistics, and bringing comfort to those around them, William’s body language expressed the clear sentiment of feeling ill at ease in the role of hero. Yet their teammates were full of praise for them.
Drew Luhowy, the 3XR’s resident Canadian, observed, “The collective diversity of those who came here to Ukraine to help push back against Russia has been strengthened because we found each other as a team, and thanks to our individual identities, we’ve been able to accomplish much of what we’ve set out to do so far.”
3XR’s Chris Tiller, an airline pilot from Nashville, Tennessee, who has been in Ukraine since early April and was the initial member of the Renegade Relief Runners, spoke directly to the challenges facing Williams on their mission.
“As soon as Agatha made their concerns known as to what adverse impact their identity could have on us in a country such as Ukraine that is thought of as conservative, we made it known, that not only would they never face repercussions for living their truth when we were together, we’d take 100% of Agatha if given the chance.”
“I don’t think my identity played a role in me coming here. It was more a product of how I grew up, in foster care,’ Williams said after everything was handed out and prior to departing Kharkiv with the others. “I’ve identified as queer, and have been Agatha for twenty years, and I’m 37 now, so I’ve always been me. The main reason I came, was to try to help do something to alleviate this senseless suffering.”
“Yes, people seem to keep a distance when they see me, but that is probably as much because of the war and them keeping to themselves as it is about how I look or who I am. Working with people here, Ukrainian or otherwise, has never been a problem.”
As they prepared to depart, I asked the four members what came next. Luhowy was succinct.
“Who knows? We’re all just here to help Ukraine.”
Members of the Renegade Relief Runners. From left in back: Ken Brady, Drew Luhowy, Chris Tiller, Agatha Williams. Front row: Ukrainian civilians Andre and Anna
As volunteer fighters Oleksandr Zhuhan and Antonina Romanova pack for a return to active duty, they contemplate the unicorn insignia that gives their uniform a rare distinction — a symbol of their status as an LGBTQ couple who are Ukrainian soldiers.
Members of Ukraine’s LGBTQ community who sign up for the war have taken to sewing the image of the mythical beast into their standard-issue epaulettes just below the national flag.
The practice harks back to the 2014 conflict when Russia invaded then annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, “when lots of people said there are no gay people in the army,” actor, director and drama teacher Zhuhan told Reuters as he and Romanova dressed in their apartment for their second three-month combat rotation.
“So they (the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community) chose the unicorn because it is like a fantastic ‘nonexistent’ creature.”
Zhuhan and Romanova, who identifies as a nonbinary person with she/her pronouns and moved to the capital from Crimea after being displaced in 2014, met through their theater work.
Neither was trained in the use of weapons but, after spending a couple of days hiding in their bathroom at the start of the war, decided they had to do more.
“I just remember that at a certain point it became obvious that we only had three options: either hide in a bomb shelter, run away and escape, or join the Territorial Defense (volunteers). We chose the third option,” Romanova said.
Russia says its forces are on a “special operation” to demilitarize Ukraine and rid it of radical anti-Russian nationalists. Ukraine and its allies call that a false pretext for a war of aggression.
For Zhuhan and Romanova, their vocation gives them an added sense of responsibility.
“Because what Russia does is they don’t just take our territories and kill our people. They want to destroy our culture and … we can’t allow this to happen,” Zhuhan said.
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‘No Bullying’
Their first tour of duty around Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, about 135 km (80 miles) from the port of Odesa, changed their lives. They fought in the same unit and found it terrifying, Zhuhan contracted pneumonia, but, the couple says, their fellow fighters accepted them.
“There was no aggression, no bullying… It was a little unusual for the others. But, over time, people started calling me Antonina, some even used my she pronoun,” Romanova said.
There was much back-slapping as they joined their new unit at Kyiv’s central station for a second three-month stint. Some of the team Zhuhan and Romanova knew but the commanders were not at the station.
“I’m a little worried about that,” Zhuhan said, the mood becoming more somber as the unit headed towards their train as dusk fell. “I know that in some units, the rules are more strict … It wasn’t like that in our (first) unit.”
Zhuhan’s unease lifts as one commander makes clear his refusal to tolerate homophobia, and a more senior officer says the only important thing on the front line is to be a good fighter, he subsequently tells Reuters by phone.
But one overriding fear, voiced back in their apartment, remains.
“The thing I’m worried about is that in case I get killed during this war, they won’t allow Antonina to bury me the way I want to be buried,” Zhuhan said.
“They’d rather let my mum bury me with the priest reading silly prayers … But I am an atheist and I don’t want that.”
Openly LGBTQ lawmakers from across Latin America who gathered in Argentina’s capital last week agreed to work together to ban so-called conversion therapy in the region.
The second meeting of the Global Equality Caucus’ Latin America chapter took place in Buenos Aires. Those who attended agreed the effort to ban conversion therapy in the region would begin in countries where openly LGBTQ people have been elected to public office and where allies can be identified.
“Efforts to correct sexual orientation and gender identity (ECOSIG), also misnamed ‘conversion therapies,’ lack scientific support and are based on prejudices contrary to the human dignity of all people,” reads the document signed at the end of the meeting. “The practice of ECOSIG has been widely spread and institutionalized in our region, outside the law, which represents a threat to all LGBTI+ people and, especially, to the youngest members of the LGBTI+ community.”
Erick Iván Ortiz, who oversees the Global Equality Caucus’ work in Latin America, told the Washington Blade that “this is a pact that we also signed in Mexico and implies the commitment of legislators to advance laws and public policies that allow us to eradicate once and for all, these misnamed conversion therapies”.
According to the Global Equality Caucus representative, the meeting served “to demonstrate that congresses, national governments and local governments can and should work together to advance the rights of LGBTI people and how Argentina and Mexico are good examples and good practices.” Ortiz also stressed that from now on they will be able to face any threat from anti-LGBTQ groups in Latin America, “who seek to roll back, paralyze progress or simply deny our rights.
“What we need is a coordinated response from those of us who are and will remain in the struggle to advance the rights of LGBTI people,” said Ortiz.
The first part of the launch of the Global Equality Caucus’ Latin America chapter took place in Mexico City on April 1-2. The second meeting took place in Argentina from May 16-17.
Mercosur Parliamentarian María Luisa Storani, Argentine National Assemblyman Maximiliano Ferraro, Argentine National Sen. Guadalupe Tagliaferri, Peruvian Congresswoman Susel Paredes and Guatemalan Congressman Aldo Dávila, among others, attended the Buenos Aires meeting.
“The meeting met the expectations we had of having the opportunity to show the good practices and legislative and public policy experiences that Argentina has,” Ortiz stressed. “This is particularly important because they are experiences that come from the global south that are already, in the case of the gender identity law, a decade old and that have left significant changes in the realities of many LGBTI people.”
The Global Equality Caucus pointed out launch’s objectives are to share experiences and create a peer-to-peer learning process. The group at the same time also wants to form and strengthen networks among LGBTQ lawmakers and allies throughout Latin America and to build a working agenda on LGBTQ rights issues in the region.
Dávila, who is the first openly gay man and first person with HIV elected to the Guatemalan Congress, spoke with the Blade at the end of the meeting.
“It was fantastic,” he said. “We were able to identify the gaps that have been there forever and the need to get more members of the community into elected office, it’s key. We need to work more together to push for changes in favor of LGBTQ people.”
For him, the most important agreement “is the creation of law initiatives together.”
“In that sense, we agreed to launch law initiatives that are closely related,” said Dávila. “For example, we will fight to ban the misnamed conversion therapies and we will do it jointly in June. That will be an important step if we do it all together in the region, I think we will send a great message of union.”
Mexico City Assemblyman Temístocles Villanueva, who participated in the first Global Equality Caucus meeting in his country, had a similar opinion.
Villanueva explained to the Blade that “it was an event for the construction of the public, political and legislative agenda in the field of human rights of people of sexual diversity, having given priority to the search for bridges for cooperation, joining national and international actors.”
“We have focused on the need to share and transmit the Latin American experience for the struggle, recognition and defense of LGBTTTI+ rights through international platforms such as the caucus, connecting local work with regional and transnational cooperation networks for the defense of central causes,” added Villanueva.
Ortiz said “the next step is the construction of a consensus agenda, based on the inputs gathered in Mexico and Argentina, which will allow us to build a shared agenda that we can promote in a coordinated and articulated manner with the different members of the network.”
A World Health Organization (WHO) expert has suggested that monkeypox may have been present in the UK for years.
Officials confirmed on Wednesday (25 May) that UK cases now stand at 78, a rise of 58 in just under a week.
Monkeypox has caused alarm in many Western countries. It has typically been a disease found in west and central Africa, with only eight previous cases ever reported in the UK, all since 2018 and related to travel to or from Nigeria, according to WHO.
While the first official case of the current outbreak was reported on 4 May, professor David Heyman, a WHO expert who chairs the infectious disease group, told The Guardian that the virus has possibly been circulating undetected in the UK since between 2018 and 2019.
“It could hypothetically be that the virus transmission amplified from this low level of transmission when by chance it entered the population that is at present amplifying transmission,” he said.
Monkeypox lesions. (Getty/ CDC)
Professor Heyman stressed that this theory was not yet conclusive and more research would be required.
A virologist from the University of Leuven in Belgium, Professor Marc Van Ranst, backed Heyman’s theory. He told The Guardian: “This may be a virus that’s been circulating undetected for quite a while.”
He added: “They all have a common ancestor and that common ancestor probably dates back to 2019, though it’s too early to date with any kind of accuracy.”
The UK Health Security Agency has confirmed that a large proportion of cases have been detected among gay, bisexual and men who sleep with men.
WHO has reiterated in statement that “monkeypox is not limited to men who have sex with men”.
Monkeypox is spread through close physical contact which can include kissing, oral sex, penetrative and even simply touching someone who has symptoms.
Symptoms include swollen lymph nodes, a rash, headaches, muscle aches and low energy.
The UK is contacting tracing cases, and those at risk are being advised to isolate for 21 days.
Those in close contact with a person with monkeypox symptoms can protect themselves by washing their hands, wearing a mask and avoiding skin to skin contact, WHO says.
Republican governor Kevin Stitt has signed an anti-trans bill into law that bans trans students from using the bathroom that matches their gender identity.
Stitt signed the law on Wednesday (25 May), which applies to pre-kindergarten through to 12th grade public and public charter schools in Oklahoma. In the event that a transgender student refuses to use the restroom matches the sex shown on their birth certificate, the school would need to provide “a single-occupancy restroom or changing room”.
According to CNN, there have been more than 100 anti-trans bills signed in America in 2022 alone, with a focus on trans youth. Stitt is no stranger to signing these bills, with two restrictive trans rights bills under his belt already this year.
The state has been under particular scrutiny this year for its sheer emphasis on restricting trans rights – and bathroom bills like this one are no new phenomena to the marginalised group.
Oklahoma ACLU executive director Tamya Cox-Touré lambasted the governor for his disregard for trans youth, saying: “By signalling out transgender students for discrimination and excluding them from restrooms that match their gender identity, SB 615 discriminates based on transgender status and sex in violation of the United States Constitution and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act.”
Republicans like Stitt have consistently attempted to make it more difficult for transgender Americans to receive gender-affirming health care, an effort of which this legislation is part of.
“Governor Stitt and the anti-equality legislators in the Oklahoma State House have been relentless in their attack on LGBTQ+ rights, and particularly for transgender people,” Cathryn Oakley, state legislative director and senior counsel for the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement last month.
Actor Kevin Spacey has been charged with four counts of sexual assault against three men, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said.
In addition, the Oscar-winning American actor faces one charge of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.
On Thursday (26 May), Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS Special Crime Division, which “deals with the most complex and sensitive cases in England and Wales”, said: “The CPS has authorised criminal charges against Kevin Spacey, 62, for four counts of sexual assault against three men.
“He has also been charged with causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. The charges follow a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in its investigation.
“The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against Mr Spacey are active and that he has the right to a fair trial.”
According to the CPS, Spacey is due to appear in court, although a date has not been made public.
The first two sexual assault charges are alleged to have both been against the same male complainant, and to have taken place in London in March 2005.
The third sexual assault charge and the charge of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent were allegedly against a second male complainant in London in August 2008.
The final sexual assault charge relates to an alleged offence against a third man in Gloucestershire in 2013.
The actor worked at the Old Vic theatre in London between 2004 and 2015, the time period when the alleged offences occurred.
Spacey is known for his roles in films like The Usual Suspects, LA Confidentialand Seven, and more recently he has starred as politician Frank Underwood in the Netflix series House of Cards, as well as working as an executive producer on the show.
Cubans might have a chance this year to do something they’ve done very rarely: cast a meaningful vote. The government, which rarely consults its people, says it will allow Cubans to “have their say” in a referendum, with respect to whether same-sex couples, a minority, can marry.
Cuba’s government has a well-documented history of violating citizens’ right to vote in free and fair elections and to take part in public affairs. The Communist Party, the only one allowed in the country, has governed since the 1959 revolution without giving citizens the option to vote its leaders out of office—or even to protest their actions.
But now, authorities are subjecting basic rights to a political football between advocates for equality and non-discrimination and their opponents, some of whom mischaracterize their work as “gender ideology.”
To be sure, the inclusion of marriage equality in the draft Family Code, which has been undergoing a “public consultation” since February, is a positive development. It includes a gender-neutral definition of marriage, thereby opening the door to marriage between same-sex couples.
The draft Family Code also strengthens women’s rights in domestic law by reinforcing their sexual and reproductive rights and upholding the equitable distribution of domestic and care work. It also expands children’s rights by, for example, enshrining their rights to be heard and to physical integrity, as well as the principle of progressive autonomy, to allow children to participate in decisions affecting them based on their age and maturity. The right of same-sex couples to be free from discrimination, however, is proving the be amongthe most contentious of the draft Code’s provisions.
The “public consultation” process ended on April 30 and the draft will be put to a referendum vote later this year. But there’s serious reason to doubt that the plebiscite will fully respect voters’ rights. Given that the administration of Miguel Díaz-Canel controls all branches of power and severely restricts freedom of expression, respecting people’s will in the polls will ultimately be up to the administration.
What’s also troubling is the political pageantry of putting individual rights, including the right of gay and lesbian couples to be free from discrimination, to a popularity vote. In Cuba, this comes after public protests in 2019 against redefining marriage to include same-sex couples in the draft of a new constitution. In response to this outcry, the government withdrew that provision from the draft, approved that same year, and punted the marriage equality question to this Family Code referendum.
Other countries have tried this. Ireland (which was required by law to hold a referendum to change the constitution) and Australia upheld the rights of same-sex couples when citizens voted overwhelmingly in favor of marriage equality. Bermuda and Taiwan’s referendums rejected same-sex marriage (Taiwan’s legislature later passed it).
Referendums can be an important component of democracy and can, in some circumstances, help break the political inertia to uphold rights and promote rights-respecting policies. Yet, ultimately, the recognition of the rights of minorities, including LGBT people, should not hinge on a popularity vote. That is an affront to the human dignity of already marginalized people subject to violence and discrimination, and could expose their lives and identities to unnecessary and harmful public debate, scrutiny, evaluation.
What would we say if the referendum was about whether a religious minority could practice their religion openly? Or, whether an ethnic minority should enjoy freedom from discrimination? This would provoke moral outrage. There should be no differences when the right of same-sex couples to be free from discrimination is at stake.
What’s worse, in Cuba, news and government reports suggest the vote may be close, a prospect that is not helped by the Catholic Church describing the Family Code as attacking “the nature of the family” and constituting “gender ideology.” Evangelical and other churches have also opposed the Code’s provisions on these grounds.
“Gender ideology” is a vacuous catch-all term generally intended to denote an ill-defined gay and feminist conspiracy to wreak havoc on traditional values. Far-right movements and politicians worldwide, including Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and Florida’s Ron Desantis, have peddled disinformation to popularize the term, using it to attack LGBT, children’s, and women’s rights. Yet, what in Cuba they are calling “gender ideology” is really about gender equality.
Cuba should urgently rectify its miserable rights record, including by allowing people to participate in periodic free and fair elections. But this would-be referendum is categorically misguided. The people’s will should certainly guide public policy, but not dictate whether well-established international human rights will be upheld. Instead of passing on its duty to the electorate, Cuban authorities should themselves uphold these rights, including if the referendum fails to do so.
