Adela Hernandez, a biologically
male Cuban who has lived as a female since childhood, served two years in
prison in the 1980s for "dangerousness" after her own family
denounced her sexuality.
This month she made history
by becoming the first known transgender person to hold public office in Cuba,
winning election as a delegate to the municipal government of Caibarien in the
central province of Villa Clara.
In a country where gays were
persecuted for decades and sent to grueling work camps in the countryside,
Hernandez, 48, hailed her election as yet another milestone in a gradual shift
away from macho attitudes in the years since Fidel Castro himself expressed
regret over the treatment of people perceived to be different.
"As time evolves,
homophobic people – although they will always exist – are the minority,"
Hernandez said by phone from her hometown.
Becoming a delegate "is
a great triumph," she added.
Because she has not
undergone sex-change surgery, Hernandez is legally still a man in the eyes of
the Cuban state: Jose Agustin Hernandez, according to the civil registry.
Hernandez, who switched back and forth between feminine and masculine pronouns
when referring to herself during an interview, said she hasn't made a decision
to seek an operation but doesn't rule it out either.
Hernandez won office in
early November by taking a runoff vote 280-170. Her position is the equivalent
of a city councilor, and her election makes her eligible to be selected as a
representative to Parliament in early 2013.
For years after the 1959
Cuban Revolution, authorities hounded people of differing sexual orientation
and others considered threatening, such as priests, long-haired youths and rock
`n' roll enthusiasts. But there have been notable changes in attitudes toward
sexuality.
"I would like to think
that discrimination against homosexuals is a problem that is being
overcome," Fidel Castro told an interviewer some years ago.
Since 2007 the island has
been covering sex-change surgery under its free health care system. Last year a
gay man and a transsexual woman whose operation was paid for by the state
garnered headlines for their first-of-its kind wedding.
The country's most prominent
gay rights activist is Mariela Castro, Fidel's niece and current President Raul
Castro's daughter.
As director of Cuba's
National Center for Sex Education, Mariela Castro has instituted awareness
campaigns, trained police on relations with the
lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender community and lobbied parliament to legalize
same-sex unions.
Born in a sugar town in
central Cuba, Hernandez was disowned by her family and said it was her own
father who reported her to authorities, leading to her imprisonment. She had to
change towns and defend herself physically from attacks.
Over the decades she found
work as a hospital janitor, then as a nurse and most recently as an
electrocardiogram technician. She also established herself in the community and
as a longtime member of her neighborhood watch committee, which helped her win
acceptance and laid the groundwork for her election.
"My neighbors know me
as Adela, the nurse," Hernandez said. "Sexual preference does not
determine whether you are a revolutionary or not. That comes from within."
As an elected official she
promised to advocate for her constituents' interests, but said she also wants
to be a voice for gay rights.
"I represent a
community but I will always keep in mind the defense of gays," Hernandez
said.
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If
a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have
committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood
[shall be] upon them.
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¶
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The
woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man
put on a woman's garment: for all that do so [are] abomination unto the LORD
thy God.
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And
turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned [them] with an
overthrow, making [them] an ensample unto those that after should live
ungodly;
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