Vanessa Bauza
 

HAVANA · Is Cuba ready for a safe-sex ad highlighting gays? That was the question on AIDS activists' minds recently as a small crew filmed a 30-second public
service announcement featuring a svelte brunette transvestite and two men exchanging condoms.

The government has not yet approved the television ad to air. But if it finds its way into millions of Cuban households, it would be a sign of change in a society where
gays say they were virtually invisible only a decade ago.

"We are writing history, though we still don't know whether anyone will read it," said Nelson Joel Valdez, 30, a volunteer at Havana's AIDS prevention center, who
helped develop the ad. "Sometimes we don't know how far to go, or whether we aren't going far enough."

Like most changes in Cuban society, acceptance of gays has been tentative. Ten years ago the breakthrough film Strawberry and Chocolate was the first to hold a
critical mirror to this macho society's homophobia and portray the friendship between a gay man and a young communist. Gay topics are mostly taboo in the
state-run media and homosexuals in Cuban soap operas are largely depicted as flighty buffoons. Still, many gays feel society has become more open-minded and
tolerant.

"Before Strawberry and Chocolate there were no transvestites," says Kiriam Gutiérrez, 28. Gutiérrez, the transvestite who appears in the safe-sex commercial,
began dressing as a woman in public in 1993, the year the film debuted. Like many, he draws a direct line between its release and a positive change in his personal
life.

"People used to throw eggs, tomatoes, whatever," Gutiérrez said. "Now things are different. People who were hidden before are not anymore."

There are still many barriers, however, say those who have come of age in the past decade. Gay clubs, marches, magazines and organizations are nonexistent.
Hangouts adopted by gays are sometimes temporarily closed or their hours are limited to control attendance.

Clandestine parties held in parking lots, secluded fields or private homes are now the most common way for gays to get together. Many gays say police often break
up the gatherings, ask partygoers to leave and in some cases issue fines for being in an inappropriate place at an inappropriate hour.

"I can't tell you whether the first justification is to combat delinquency or to combat homosexuality," said Raúl Regueiro, 33, a bank worker. "What we need is a
place where we can get together peacefully in public, without fear."

A survey released last week of 300 Cubans across the island found that 71 percent of those questioned defined homosexuality as an "inclination toward people of
the same sex" while 22 percent called it an illness and 7 percent viewed it as a personality disorder. Conducted by a group of Cuban journalists and presented at the
16th annual World Congress of Sexology conference in Havana, the survey found slightly more tolerance for gay men than lesbians. About 58 percent of those
interviewed said they would treat a lesbian "like any other person" compared to 61 percent who said they would treat gay men the same way.

"When people see a woman making an independent life with another woman, they fear it," said Malena Perez, 23, a student. "It's as though they think we might have
the power to convince other women to be lesbians."

During the 1960s, gays, priests, some artists and others considered unfit for military service were put into labor camps, known by the Spanish acronym UMAP, or
Military Units to Aid Production. Homosexuality was considered a capitalist import and gays were excluded from some university careers because they were
considered untrustworthy. In the 1980s, a law against publicly flaunting homosexuality was removed from the penal code. Today, many gays focus on societal rather
than institutional discrimination.

Gutiérrez, for example, says he endures daily confrontations, insults and whispered name-calling because he dresses like a woman. But he has also received free
treatment for a hormone imbalance as well as psychiatric therapy sessions at Havana's National Center for Sex Education.

"It's a common misconception that gays are not revolutionaries or socialists," Gutiérrez says. "I believe in socialism. But as long as I don't commit a crime no one has
the right to rule my life."