Look who's talking: Giuliani says Cuba mistreats gays

The following is from a talk by Bob McCubbin at a June 23 Los Angeles film showing of “Butterflies on the Scaffold,” a powerful documentary about transgender experience in Cuba. The event was a fund-raiser for an upcoming trip to Cuba led by the militant youth group FIST—Fight Imperialism, Stand Together.

On June 22 the New York Times online edition carried a blog article reporting on presidential aspirant Rudolph Giuliani’s latest anti-Cuba rant, where he gushed eloquent on how terribly Cuban gays are treated. Not to let current billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg off the hook, but former New York City Mayor Giuliani left no pro-gay legacy for that city. Like the rest of the U.S., the streets of New York City were, under Giuliani’s rule, and continue to be under the rule of Bloomberg extremely hazardous for lesbian, gay, bi and trans (LGBT) people.

Such dangerous homophobic and gender-phobic conditions exist nowhere in the island nation of Cuba.

If Giuliani had any real concern about the bigotry against LGBT people that remains so prevalent in the U.S., instead of attacking Cuba he could have called for support for the Jersey 4.

Quoting from an article by trans activist Imani Henry in the current issue of Workers World: “On June 14, four African-American women ... received sentences ranging from three-and-a-half to 11 years in prison. None of them had previous criminal records. Two of them are parents of small children. Their crime? Defending themselves from a physical attack by a man who held them down and choked them, ripped hair from their scalps, spat on them, and threatened to sexually assault them—all because they are lesbians.”

[Y]ou can find out more about the continuing struggle to free the jailed lesbian sisters at www.fiercenyc.org.

Someone might want to alert Mr. Giuliani: The attack against these sisters occurred in New York City’s Greenwich Village.

[T]o cite an important example of real solidarity with the struggle against lesbian bashing and with Cuba, the New York City LGBT youth group called FIERCE!, which is in the forefront of organizing support for the four jailed New Jersey lesbians, is also a proud signer of the Rainbow Solidarity call demanding justice for the Cuban Five.

The Rainbow Solidarity with the Cuban Five call has, since its issuing, received the endorsement of over 1,000 individuals, organizations and unions in 40 countries, as well as every state in the continental U.S. The statement has been translated from English into 12 other languages with six more translations on the way, including a streaming video in American Sign Language.

Everyone—lesbian, gay, bisexual, straight and trans—should sign on to this statement of support.

A high point for the Rainbow Solidarity campaign for the Cuban Five was the June 2 meeting at the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in New York City. At that meeting, a representative of the Cuban government welcomed the support of the LGBT movement.

Sisters and brothers, there’s another grouping within U.S. society whose contributions to social enrichment and political progress remain to be welcomed: the contributions of immigrant workers. These workers deserve no less than full equality with full political rights. But they need solidarity from the rest of us in this difficult struggle.

What about “Rainbow Solidarity with Undocumented Workers”? Could this become more than just another interesting idea?