Earlier this year, for first time in more than 50 years, the United States flag was raised at the U.S. Embassy in Havana. As our two nations gradually reestablish diplomatic ties, trade and tourism, there are a still many issues to be addressed. Yet, the mere fact we are moving towards a return to normalized relations is an incredible step for the future.
What does that have to do with LGBT Milwaukee? Just coincidentally, next week, on Wednesday, Sept. 2, gay Cuban medical professional Alberto Roque is speaking at the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center. Roque appears for the first time in Wisconsin thanks to the collaboration of the Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba with a broad range of local LGBT community groups and individuals. It is particularly satisfying to see our city’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans brothers and sisters share the honor of hosting such an important international guest, especially in this historic context.
Roque is an internal medicine specialist, an assistant professor and adjunct researcher at the Medical University of Havana. For more than a decade he has focused on transgender and sexual health, human rights, bioethics, gender and sexuality studies. He is member of numerous Cuban and international medical and sexuality research societies including The World Professional Association for Transgender Health. He founded Humanity for Diversity, an LGBT group at the National Center for Sex Education in Havana. A recognized lecturer on sexual health, sexual rights and transgender health in Cuba and in several countries, Roque has also published numerous articles in national and international publications.
Entitled “A Historical Perspective on LGBT Rights in Cuba and Current Challenges,” his presentation should be of particular interest to his Milwaukee audience. The Cuban LGBT story is significant and parallels our own history of the LGBT struggle. Cuba’s socialist revolution, like America's, intended to create equality for all. But both interpreted equality through the cultural prism of their respective eras, economies and socio-political traditions. The result was inequality for some with certain state-sanctioned and imposed restrictions and limitations for others. One common demographic to remain outside of the equality equation were LGBT people. Locally, Milwaukee had Police Chief Breier pursuing gays while at the same time Cuba’s police targeted, harassed and incarcerated its LGBTs. Both countries cannot be proud of their respective records but both are now facing the challenges of righting past wrongs.
Fortunately, both Fidel Castro and President Barack Obama have called upon their citizens to undo the traditional cultural ignorance, intolerance and discrimination against their non-heterosexual and non-gender conforming people. While progress has been made, especially in the last decade in both Cuba and the U.S., the fight for LGBT rights in general and those of transgender men and women in particular still goes on.
Hopefully, the renewed diplomatic and political engagement of our two nations will continue to make strides towards true equality for LGBTs of both.
Roque’s presentation takes place at the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 2. It is free and open to public.
