The ordeal of
the Gay Cubans

Again and again, the stories poured out, each a variation on the central theme of arrests, beatings, imprisonment and disgrace. They are subject to Cuba's "peligrisodad" laws, anti-social elements, and are arrested for merely being Gay.

by Larry Bush

Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, is an old National Guard headquarters. Today its tow story white frame barracks, set in the rolling green countryside of southeastern Pennsylvania, houses nearly 20,000 Cuban refugees. They have arrived at an inconvenient time for most Americans and their arrival is not welcome. High unemployment and high prices are cited most often for the change in attitude by most Americans from the days when we proudly opened the nation's resources to those fleeing persecution or just seeking a better life.

But there may be other undercurrents as well. For the first time we are faced with a flood of refugees who have been publicly denounced by their own government as criminals and homosexuals. And, for the first time since Cuban refugees began leaving Castro's regime, a significant number of the Cubans are Black.

Castro has strenuously denied, that racism exists on his island, and banned it several years ago. The Cuban refugees say that the only effect of that ban was to make Black Cubans who spoke out against existing racism, criminals, counter-revolutionaries who had not accepted the revolution's success at ending discrimination. Further, Castro's aggressive outreach to African nations make the exodus of Blacks all the more embarrassing.

Those geopolitical currents, and the uneasiness of many Americans, swirl over the heads of the Cubans, who are isolated and oblivious at camps such as Fort Indiantown Gap. The sameness of the white barracks in each quarter gives testimony that this is a way station for most of the Cubans who will be resettled in the United States. In all there are six separate camp areas, with amiable guards positioned at each entrance and copes of woods serving as barriers for refugees who would seek to visit between the camps. Visitors who ask to meet Cuban homosexuals are immediately directed to two barracks housing a total of more than 100 men who live surrounded by straight Cuban men who stand buy smirking and sometimes physically harassing their fellow refugees who are Gay.

When the military van used to escort press visitors pulled up, the Cubans came tumbling out of their barracks shouting greetings, holding each other with public affection, and camping outrageously. With the cast-off clothes the Red Cross furnishes, they had mixed and matched women's blouses, stacked heel clogs, Levi's and occasionally a necklace. Some wore lavender armbands. it looked nothing so much as a low budget Carmen Miranda production before the final costumes had arrived, a chorus line jubilantly taking a break between the tedium of rehearsals.

Each barracks has a counselor who serves as liaison with the informal camp government the Cubans have established for working with U.S. officials. At this barracks, the counselor was resplendent in a striped black and white blouse, short yellow pants, stacked heeled shoes and a rhythmic dance-walk. His name is Andres, and he is Black and Gay. About a third of the Cuban Gays at this barracks are Black, but these Cubans seem to make no distinction. When things quieted, a small circle sat on the grass and talked about life in Cuba. The party spirit was gone and the happy laughter changed to monotone recitals. The blouses were lifted to show deep gashes from bayonets, scars inflicted by Cuban jailers they had left behind only weeks ago.

Again and again, the stories poured out, each a variation on the central theme of arrests, beatings, imprisonment and disgrace. They are subject to Cuba's "peligrisodad" laws, anti-social elements, and are arrested for merely being Gay. The fact that most of the men were effeminate was no coincidence. It was the single measure most Cuban officials used to "determine" homosexuality.

"I began work as an elementary school teacher, my name is Rafael," one said. "My experience as a teacher was very good, but the police came to the house and said I was effeminate. That was considered a public scandal. I was given a fine, then fired and put to work on a construction crew. I was later jailed for three years."

"I don't want to think about what's going to happen," one leader said. "In Cuba they are talking of setting up a huge work camp for homosexuals. They are going to round up all the homosexuals and take them there. Those people are going to be lost. They would kill us all."

Andres, the barracks counselor, was 16 when he was first arrested. He was in a compulsory military work unit, and had become lover with another youth. The were arrested and put in separate prisons. Andres served three years in jail and then was released to become a mechanic in the railroads. A planned career in nursing was ruined and he was force to take menial jobs by the central Cuban government office. Three months ago he was arrested while talking to another Gay man on the street, and put in jail.

"It was awful," Andres says. "They mistreated us tremendously. In cells for six, they had 16 of us, and we were not allowed any sun. I had friend who died in prison. They hung themselves because it was just too much and none of us expected to ever leave prison again. "We would get prodded with electric cattle prods, they would throw bottles of water at us for no reason, so the glass would shatter and fly over us. We would be beaten with braids made for electric wires."

Nearly all the men left Cuba at the direction of the Cuban government. They were taken straight from the jails and put on boats. They are a portion of the "criminals" American officials are becoming increasingly nervous about. "My parents only imagine that I am here," Andres says. "They don't know if I was lost at sea or what." The Cuban guards taunted the men saying that life in the United States would not be any better, that there was no hope for a homosexual anywhere.

"They would tell us that in the United States the homosexuals are not well regarded," says Jorge. "They said they were treated as criminals and they lived apart from the rest of society, and that Black homosexuals were treated worst of all." However, the prison and Gay grapevine maintained that Gay life in America was not as bad as Cuban officials had said. Most of that information came form visiting Cuban American Gays who were in Havana last summer.

"I heard they have a great movement fight for Gay rights here," Jorge says. "I hope I will enjoy a state of freedom that we don't have in Cuba. The opportunity to say what we think, openly. Not only to say that but to fight for it."

For the Gay refugees, life at Indiantown Gap is better than any they have known., They have each other, openly, even if it means trouble from their fellow refugees. Having tasted that freedom, they will not back off from "flaunting" themselves, despite fears for their safety from American officials. While the Cuban Gays interviewed were men, a large number of Lesbians are also believed to be at the camps.

At Indiantown Gap, women in the barracks identified as Lesbian centers would not submit to interviews. To date, a number of Gay organizations are seeking to make an out reach to the Gay refugees. Metropolitan Community Church has pledged a major effort through its local congregations. The National Gay Task Force is working with State Department and White House officials to assure that Cuban Gays will face no "status" problems but firm guarantees are difficult until Congress and the Administration acts on the overall Cuban refugee question.