Date: Mon, 22 May 1995 12:03:27 -0700 (PDT) From: Rex Wockner Subject: CUBAN GAYS ARE OUT AND PRECOCIOUS ************************************************** * Copyright (c) 1995 Rex Wockner and affiliates. * ************************************************** CUBAN GAYS ARE OUT AND PRECOCIOUS by Rex Wockner Cuban gays are out, playful and easy to meet, say two San Diego gay men who just returned from six days on the island. One factor in the opening up of gay life in Cuba is the international success of the gay-themed film "Strawberry and Chocolate," say Terry Abrams and Manuel Arboleda, who violated the U.S. ban on travel to Cuba "just for the hell of it," they said. They caught a Cubana Airlines flight in Mexico City. "We saw 'Strawberry and Chocolate' and we were both curious to find out what the hell was going on in Cuba," said Arboleda. "We wanted to see one of the last Communist countries before it changed," added Abrams. Gays meet around the Yara Theater and across the street at the Coppelia outdoor ice-cream parlor, the men said. "On Friday night, there were 75 gays cruising," said Arboleda. "One look at me and they were clumping all around us," said Abrams. "They never meet Americans. "We brought two guys up to our hotel room and we thought we were going to have sex but they dove for the (cable) TV (which is available only in tourist hotels). Then they saw the Levis on my bed, so I ended up giving away my Levis." "And I gave away my brand-new underwear," added Arboleda. Consumer goods of every sort have long been in short supply in Cuba. Abrams' and Arboleda's new friends were a 24-year-old English student and a 22-year-old law student. "They're starving to meet people from all over the world," said Abrams. "They love foreigners." "The guys said the hardest thing is for two men to live together," Arboleda said. "They still have trouble with the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution," groups of neighbors indoctrinated to spy on each other to deter counterrevolutionary activity. Lovebirds can go to special hotels or "posadas," such as the one depicted in the opening scene of "Strawberry and Chocolate." "Regarding the film," said Arboleda, "per our informants, they said that the roles were reversed, that the gay intellectual in the film, Diego, is actually straight, and Vladimir Cruz, the actor who played the straight Communist militant, is actually gay. They wanted to be sure we got the word out about that." Havana has three mixed gay-straight discotheques now, the men reported. The most-popular one is Deuville. Otherwise, gay life centers around private parties and public cruising. Other cruisy areas include Central Park and various public toilets. Gays told Abrams and Arboleda they are no longer bothered by police. Arboleda and Abrams said they were told Cuba has closed all of its notorious AIDS sanitariums, in which HIV-positives were involuntarily quarantined. "In 1993, the government began to change the policy and let the HIV or AIDS people out if they behaved well," said Arboleda. "In 1994, they closed them totally, less to do with international pressure than economics. The government has run out of money. The government cannot think where to cut (spending) so the sanitariums had to go. There were over a dozen of them. They closed them last year sometime." Chinese condoms are available cheap but they break, Arboleda said. "They were 15 cents a pack," he said. "My friend said he put five on and they all broke. They rip up easy. (Quality) condoms are in such shortage that they said they just don't have anal sex." Violation of the ban on travel to Cuba can result in a $50,000 fine and or five years in prison under U.S. law but the law is rarely if ever enforced. == end ==