( Photo by Michael K. Lavers for the Washington Blade file )
MATANZAS, Cuba ( AP ) | Proudly wearing a rainbow- colored clergy stole and a rainbow flag in her clerical collar, the Rev. In Matanzas, Cuba’s port city, Elaine Saralegui welcomed everyone to her LGBTQ+ diverse religion.
” We’re all invited. And no one can remove us, Saralegui told same-sex couples who sat their hands on the wooden pews in Saralegui’s Metropolitan Community Church, where she had just wed her partner.
These phrases and this particular gathering would have been unthinkable before in the most liberal and predominately Christian Caribbean nation, where anti-gay hostility is also pervasive.
After its 1959 revolutionary under Fidel Castro, Cuba repressed gay people and sent many individuals to concentration camps. But in recent years, the communist- work island barred pro- gay discrimination, and a 2022 government- backed “family law” — approved by famous vote — allowed similar- sex couples the right to marriage and adopt.
Users of Cuba’s LGBTQ+ neighborhood claim that the revolution made it a milestone that allowed them to accept their gender identity and devotion more easily in a nation that was formally atheist for decades. Over the past quarter century, it has gradually become more accepting of sects.
” It’s big. There are n’t enough words to express how wonderful of a chance it is to fulfill the dream of so many, said Maikol Aorga. At a Friday assistance, he and his father, Vladimir Marin, took turns laying white and pink wildflower offerings in gratitude of God. They were standing next to the altar.
” It’s the opportunity for all people to be present here”, he said,” to gather and participate without regards to their gender, race or religion”.
The Catholic Church, in its philosophy, also rejects same- sexual marriage and condemns any intimate relations between gay or lesbian partners as “intrinsically disordered”. Pope Francis has accomplished far more than any other pope who has made the church a more inviting place for LGBTQ+ people.
The bishop approved a policy change in December that would allow Catholic priests to bless same-sex people while still enforcing its tight ban on gay marriage.
The Catholic Church of Cuba and the growing number of evangelical temples that have taken over the area faced opposition to the family rules there.
Anti- LGBTQ+ right marches have faded since 2022. However, pastors of the time spoke out from the church and distributed pamphlets and Bibles in the streets, praising God’s “original program” for unions between men and women and labeling homosexual relationships as sin.
Still, the measure was overwhelmingly approved by nearly 67 % of voters. In response to a massive government campaign that included intensive state media coverage and global educational meetings, thousands of people have emigrated to the United States as a result of one of the worst financial crises to hit Cuba in decades.
In a digital information sent at the moment, Cuban President Miguel D’az-Canel expressed his satisfaction with the widespread support the measure received despite difficult economic difficulties. He celebrated, tweeting:” Like is now the law”.
For years, the action for LGBTQ+ rights has been happily led by Cuba’s best- known advocate for queer rights: Mariela Castro, child of former President Raul Castro and daughter of his nephew Fidel.
” This just brings happiness. This only makes people feel truly worthwhile, respected, loved, considered – a true member with their rights and duties”, Castro told The Associated Press.
” I think we’ve taken a very important step forth”.
Castro was campaigning for same-sex couples long before same-sex couples were allowed to marry, while educating police on their ties to the LGBTQ+ area and sponsoring allegorical ceremonies where Protestant clergy from the United States and Canada honored unions during the annual Pride parade.
Castro, who is the president of Cuba’s National Center for Gender Education and a member of the National Assembly, said,” It was a wonderful spiritual practice for me, and I believe for those persons as well.” ” Second, our campaign was:’ Allow love become the law.’ Then, like is the laws, and we’re going to stay celebrating it”.
Her aunt, then-retired head Fidel Castro, admitted in 2010 that he was bad to discriminate against gay people. When asked about this, she claimed it helped to change consumer perception.
” I think he was sincere. She said that for him to say this, it was good and healthy because it made it clear to the rest of the people who were still holding onto prejudices that this kind of thinking may change.
There were biases that developed perhaps in a revolution chief like him, and he was able to understand them and aid in the development of change.
In the early years after the 1959 trend, homosexuality in Cuba, she said, was not distinct than in the rest of the world. In the United States, sexuality was deemed a psychological condition by medical specialists, and gay intercourse was a crime in most claims. Russia, a big admirer of Fidel Castro when it was at the center of the socialist Soviet Union, is now bucking the global trend of greater LGBTQ+ approval with a multi-pronged crackdown on LGBTQ+ activism.
Marriage was between a man and a woman, not between two persons, according to the previous Cuban Family Code, which forbids longtime colleagues from inheriting any property.
The new law goes beyond the rights of gay couples to choose or apply surrogates, which activists unsuccessfully attempted to include in the Constitution in 2019 with. It likewise expanded privileges for children, the elderly and people.
Over a decade ago, the first users of Saralegui’s church began gathered on a home terrace in Matanzas to sing and pray.
” The horizon was our roof and when it rained, we’d all bottle into a tiny room”, Saralegui said. In 2015, with help from the U. S. based LGBTQ+ affirming Metropolitan Community Churches, they converted a home into their religion, decked with sturdy pews and a stained- crystal cross that hangs above the altar. In an example of interfaith partnership, the local Tibetan Buddhist group Uranath that meets here during the week stores its musical instruments.
” This church is a family”, said Saralegui, who has a tattoo of the Jesus fish on one of her forearms and wears a Buddhist bracelet. ” It’s a sacred space, not just because there’s a cross or an altar, but because it’s the most sacred space for these people to come to — it’s where they come to have a safe space”.
Congregant Nico Salazar, 18, expressed his happiness after receiving communion that he had found a safe place here after his parents, who were members of an evangelical church he attended, had asked him not to come back when he accepted his gender identity.
Other churches should emphasize that God is love, as Salazar, who was born a woman, and who started hormone treatment this year, should not repress and harm others with a alleged sin.
” Sin and love are not the same”, said Salazar, who wore an earring in the shape of a cross.
” And to love”, he added, “is not a sin”.
