A Transgender woman with HIV who participated in an anti-government protest in Cuba on July 11, 2021, remains in prison two years later.

Authorities arrested Brenda Díaz in Güira de Melena in Artemisa province.

The Güira de Melena protest was one of dozens against the Cuban government that took place across the country July 11, 2021. Díaz is among the hundreds of people who were arrested during the demonstrations.

A Havana court last year sentenced García to 14 years in prison. She appealed her sentence, but Cuba’s People’s Supreme Court upheld it.

Yoan de la Cruz, who is gay, used Facebook Live to livestream the first July 11 protest that took place in San Antonio de los Baños in Artemisa province. The same Havana court that sentenced Díaz condemned De La Cruz to six years in prison, but he was released in May 2022 and placed under house arrest for five years.

Mariela Castro, the daughter of former Cuban President Raúl Castro who directs the country’s National Center for Sexual Education, earlier this year during an interview with Agencia EFE dismissed reports that Díaz continues to suffer mistreatment in prison. The U.S. State Department has repeatedly urged Cuban authorities to release Díaz and others who participated in the July 11 protests.

“Today, we mark two years since tens of thousands of Cubans across the entire island raised their voices for their fundamental freedoms,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday in a statement. “The United States stands in solidarity with those in Cuba who continue to desire a free democracy where their voices are heard, their businesses prosper and their children can achieve a brighter future.” 

“The world will not forget those who bravely made their voices heard in the face of extreme repression, including the more than 700 individuals who remain in Cuban jails, condemned to prison sentences ranging up to 25 years for exercising their freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly,” added Blinken.

Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is among the American lawmakers who also acknowledged the second anniversary of the July 11 protests.

“Two years ago today Cubans marched to demand their freedom,” said the Florida Democrat in a tweet. “Those calls cannot go unanswered. We must stand strong against the regime until they free political prisoners and respect human rights.”

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a Republican presidential candidate who is of Cuban descent, in a tweet noted the “largest protest for freedom in Cuba began two years ago today.” Suarez also said the Biden administration “ignored their pleas for help.”

“As president, I would have a message to the oppressors of Cuba — freedom is coming,” tweeted Suarez.

HAVANA — The daughter of former Cuban President Raúl Castro this week described the case of a Transgender woman who is serving a 14-year prison sentence after she participated in an anti-government protest in 2021 as “an oversized story full of fantasies.”

Mariela Castro, who directs Cuba’s National Center for Sexual Education, spoke about Brenda Díaz during an interview that Agencia EFE published on May 3.

Authorities arrested Díaz in Güira de Melena in Artemisa province on July 11, 2021.

The Güira de Melena protest was one of dozens against the Cuban government that took place across the country on that day.

A Havana court last year sentenced Díaz to 14 years in prison. Cuba’s highest court later upheld the sentence.

The State Department in a previous statement to the Washington Blade that called for Díaz’s release expressed concern over her “well-being” amid “reports that she is being held in a men’s prison and is not receiving appropriate medical treatment.” 

Díaz’s mother has previously said her daughter, who lives with HIV, has access to antiretroviral drugs, but other medications are not always available. Díaz’s mother has also complained about the “very bad quality” of food in prison.

“Brenda is very well there,” Mariela Castro told Agencia EFE. “She does not know that she is a media figure that has been invented against Cuba.”

Mariela Castro said Díaz receives “very good food, better than her family has” in prison, and she is able to participate in sport activities and a library. Mariela Castro further described reports about Díaz and her case as “little gossips” and “a media show by the press and corporate agencies.”

“It is sad that the same lie to attack Cuba with this story continues to be reproduced,” said Mariela Castro. 

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — The Barbados High Court on Monday struck down a colonial-era law that criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations.

The ruling specifically struck down Sections 9 and 12 of the Barbados Sexual Offenses Act.

Men who were found guilty of engaging in consensual same-sex sexual relations under Section 9 could have faced up to life in prison. Men and women who were convicted of violating Section 12 could have faced up to 10 years in prison.

The London-based Human Rights Trust in a press release noted Equals, an LGBTQ+ and intersex rights group in Barbados, and the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality challenged the law on behalf of two local activists.

“Today’s ruling is one step, one action of many impacting the LGBTQ+ community of Barbados,” said one of the plaintiffs in the Human Rights Trust press release. “As it resonates with me, I already know there is more work to be done. We will continue on together.”

The other plaintiff in the press release said the ruling is “a pivotal moment for equality for all Barbadians and one more step in the journey towards more inclusivity for LGBT citizens.” 

“This will definitely mean that I and my community can navigate life with just a little more ease and comfort, in the knowledge that Barbados has taken a step to understand us and respect us,” they said.

Judges earlier this year struck down colonial-era sodomy laws in St. Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda.

The Belizean Court of Appeal in 2019 upheld a ruling that struck down the country’s sodomy law. A judge on the Trinidad and Tobago High Court in 2018 struck down its statute that criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations. 

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights last year in a landmark decision said Jamaica must repeal its sodomy law. Then-British Prime Minister Theresa May in 2018 said she “deeply” regrets colonial-era criminalization laws the U.K. introduced. 

Donnya Piggott, an activist from Barbados, is the co-founder of Pink Coconuts, an online platform for LGBTQ+ and intersex travelers. Piggott is also Open for Business’ Caribbean Campaign lead.

Piggott in a statement said the Barbados ruling is “a long time coming, and the advocacy journey has been arduous.”

“We’re thankful to all the advocates who worked hard on this,” said Piggott. “It’s beautiful to see Barbados’ step towards inclusion and we hope it signals to other Caribbean islands that our people only stand to benefit from decriminalization as well as other inclusive laws, and the economic opportunities it brings for the entire region.”

The Associated Press reported the Barbadian government has not said whether it will appeal the ruling.

WILLEMSTAD, Curaçao — A court on Tuesday ruled Aruba and Curaçao must allow same-sex couples to marry.

The Joint Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba that has jurisdiction over three constituent countries (Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten) and three special municipalities (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba) within the Netherlands issued the ruling in two marriage equality cases that Fundacion Orguyo Aruba and Human Rights Caribbean in Curaçao filed on behalf of two women who want marriage rights in Aruba and Curaçao.

“The court has come to the conclusion that excluding same-sex marriage is in violation of the prohibition of discrimination and incompatible with state regulations,” reads the ruling, according to the Curaçao Chronicle, an English newspaper in Curaçao. 

Same-sex couples have been able to legally marry and adopt children in Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba since 2012.

Same-sex couples cannot legally marry in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The countries, however, must recognize same-sex marriages from the Netherlands, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba.

The Court of First Instance in Curaçao on Sept. 13, 2021, ruled the lack of marriage rights for same-sex couples violated the country’s constitution. Prime Minister Gilmar Pisas’ government appealed the decision in the Human Rights Caribbean case. 

Aruba’s registered partnership law took effect in September 2021. Accion 21, a centrist party that openly gay Sen. Miguel Mansur chairs, in June introduced a marriage equality bill.

Janice Tjon Sien Kie of Human Rights Caribbean on Tuesday told the Washington Blade during a telephone interview the ruling could take effect as early as March 7 if the Curaçaoan government does not appeal it to the Dutch Supreme Court in The Hague.

“As of March 7, Curaçao has marriage equality,” she said. “If they (the government) go into appeal, it would only cause a delay of approximately 18 months.”

Mansur and Melissa Gumbs, an openly lesbian member of the Sint Maarten Parliament, attended the LGBTQ Victory Fund’s International LGBTQ Leaders Conference that took place in D.C. this past weekend.

“Essentially the right to same-sex marriage has been established by the appeals court in both Curaçao and Aruba,” Mansur told the Blade on Tuesday.

Mansur noted the ruling does not address adoption rights for same-sex couples. He told the Blade on Wednesday he does not expect the Aruban government to appeal it, and the Advisory Council will receive the marriage equality bill on Dec. 16.

Gumbs, who founded the center left Party for Progress in Sint Maarten in 2019, on Tuesday told the Blade there “is precedent now within the Caribbean part of the kingdom (of the Netherlands) that it’s not right to withhold same-sex marriage rights from people.” Gumbs added her party plans to introduce a marriage equality bill in Parliament.

“That’s something that we will be using,” said Gumbs, referring to the ruling.

Cuba, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, St. Martin, St. Barthélemy are the other jurisdictions in the Caribbean in which same-sex couples can legally marry. 

HAVANA — Cubans on Sunday approved a new family code that extends marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples.

Gramna, the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, on Monday reported 66.9 percent of Cubans who participated in the referendum voted in favor of the new family code.

“Sept. 25, 2022, is already a historic day,” said Gramna. “The island has once again demonstrated that the revolution will never stop in its quest for more justice, independent of its adversaries. The road has never been easy, but it is very worthy.”

Mariela Castro, the daughter of former President Raúl Castro who spearheads LGBTQ+ and intersex issues in Cuba as director of the country’s National Center for Sexual Education, is among those who support the new family code. Mariela Castro on Sunday posted to her Facebook page a picture of her voting for it in Havana, the Cuban capital.

“I voted yes for Cuban families, for a socialist Cuba, for the world’s most revolutionary and humanist family code, for a socialist state built upon rights and social justice that recognizes and protects all families,” said Mariela Castro after she voted.

The Cuban government in the years after the 1959 revolution that brought Mariela Castro’s uncle, Fidel Castro, to power, sent gay men and others to work camps. Cubans with AIDS were forcibly quarantined in state-run sanitaria until 1993.

Cuba joins Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Mexico City and several Mexican states that have extended marriage rights to same-sex couples. Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Barthélemy, St. Martin, Sint Maarten, Sint Eustatius and Saba also have marriage equality.

Cuban government critics face harassment, arrest

Sunday’s referendum took place nearly four years after Cuban voters overwhelmingly approved their country’s new constitution. The government’s decision to remove a marriage equality amendment that religious groups had publicly criticized sparked outrage among independent LGBTQ+ and intersex activists.

LGBTQ+ and intersex Cubans and others who publicly criticize the Cuban government also continue to face harassment, discrimination and arrest.

Maykel González Vivero, editor of Tremenda Nota, the Washington Blade’s media partner in Cuba, is among the hundreds of people who were arrested during anti-government protests that took place across the country on July 11, 2021. The U.S. in 2019 granted asylum to Yariel Valdés González, a Blade contributor who suffered persecution in Cuba because he is a journalist.

Yoan de la Cruz, a gay man who used Facebook Live to livestream the first July 11 protest that took place in San Antonio de los Baños in Artemisa province. De La Cruz subsequently received a 6-year prison sentence, but he was released on house arrest in May.

Brenda Díaz, a Transgender woman with HIV who participated in a July 11 protest in Güira de Melena in Artemisa province, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison. The State Department has said it is “very concerned” about Díaz’s health and well-being and urged the Cuban government to release her.

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts and Nevis — A judge on Monday ruled a law that criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations in St. Kitts and Nevis are unconstitutional.

Justice Trevor M. Ward of the High Court of Justice in St. Kitts and Nevis struck down Sections 56 and 57 of the country’s Offenses Against the Person Act.

“Section 56 of the Offenses Against the Person Act, Cap. 4.21 contravenes Sections 3 and 12 of the Constitution of the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, namely, the right to protection of personal privacy and the right to freedom of expression, and, as such, is null and void and of no force and effect to the extent that it criminalizes any acts of constituting consensual sexual conduct in private between adults,” said Ward in his decision.

Ward further said Section 57 of the law violates “the right to protection of personal privacy and the right to freedom of expression” in the country’s constitution.

Jamal Jeffers, a gay man, and the St. Kitts and Nevis Alliance for Equality, a local LGBTQ+ and intersex rights group, challenged the law.

“This decision strongly establishes that a person’s sexuality should never be the basis for any discrimination,” said St. Kitts and Nevis Alliance for Equality Executive Director Tynetta McKoy in a press release the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality, a regional LGBTQ and intersex rights group, released on Monday. “We welcome the recognition of this fact, one for which we have long advocated.” 

A judge in July struck down Antigua and Barbuda’s colonial-era sodomy law.

The Belizean Court of Appeal in 2019 upheld a ruling that struck down the country’s sodomy law. A judge on the Trinidad and Tobago High Court in 2018 struck down its statute that criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations. 

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights last year in a landmark decision said Jamaica must repeal its sodomy law. Similar cases have been filed in Barbados and St. Lucia. 

Then-British Prime Minister Theresa May in 2018 said she “deeply” regrets colonial-era criminalization laws the U.K. introduced. Nick Herbert, a member of the British House of Lords who advises outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson on LGBTQ+ and intersex issues, last December told the Washington Blade during an interview in D.C. that his country has a “historic responsibility for these laws and their legacy.”

“[Of] the seven Caribbean and 34 Commonwealth countries that criminalized same sex intimacy, this is the second to strike down these discriminatory laws in 2022,” said Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality Executive Director Kenita Placide on Monday in their organization’s press release. “Our strategy has been multilayered; working with activists on the ground, our colleagues, friends, allies and family. This win is part of the transformative journey to full recognition of LGBTQ persons across the OECS (Organization of Eastern Caribbean States.) It is a definitive yes to change, yes to privacy, yes to freedom of expression, and we are happy to be part of this historic moment.”

KINGSTON – Like millions of Americans, Jamaica is my top destination in the Caribbean. But unlike millions of Americans, I don’t just come to Jamaica to vacation and soak up the sun. As a Black lesbian, for the past year, I have traveled throughout Jamaica, bearing witness to a modern-day underground railroad while speaking to LGBTQ people about what it’s like living in a country that seemingly encourages their murder.

Beyond Jamaica’s carefully designed and monitored tourism corridor lies a much different Jamaica that is seldom talked about in America. A country filled with people who advocate for and then ignore the murders of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. I believe that Americans and our government choose to overlook Jamaica’s state-enabled violence against LGBTQ people because, unlike in Russia and Iran, the only people being harmed are Black, and to acknowledge what’s happening could mean having to vacation in one of the other less popular 12 countries that make up the Caribbean.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

I am always asked if, as a Black lesbian, I am scared to go to Jamaica. Yes, but not for the reasons most would think.

Away from the beach, outside of the tourist zone, catcalling by men is seemingly expected and accepted as a way of life by women in Jamaica.

No one knows that I am a lesbian unless I disclose that information, and I usually don’t. In Jamaica, like in the US, people first notice that I am Black and female, and if I open up my mouth and speak — American. It doesn’t escape me either that I am somewhat more protected being a queer cisgender Black woman. As long as I keep my sexual orientation to myself, no one is the wiser.

What scares me the most are the stories I have been told by women who I have interviewed in Jamaica about being raped and a victim of gender-based violence. A violence that is oftentimes accompanied by gaslighting from the perpetrator, police, and even the victim’s own family and community.

So the American in you is probably asking yourself, if it’s that bad, why does she risk her life traveling back and forth to Jamaica?

Murder She Wrote

The 2013 murder of Dwayne Jones, a 16-year-old Jamaican boy killed by a violent mob in Montego Bay after he attended a dance party dressed in women’s clothing, changed everything for a friend of mine living in the US but from Jamaica. As a Black gay man, Dwayne Jones’ murder inspired Nevin Powell to leave Los Angeles and move to Florida to be closer to Jamaica.

I watched Nevin start off by feeding homeless queer youth living in the gutters of Kingston, referred to as The Gully Queens, out of his own pocket. He then rented a house in Jamaica to help hide and shelter queer Jamaicans who had been the victims of physical violence and faced persecution based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics. The safe house has helped over a dozen LGBTQ individuals find safety through emergency relocation and other forms of assistance. Nevin did all of this with the help of a small but dedicated team of folks in the US and Jamaica and mostly out of his own pocket.

I can tell you that Nevin is never more passionate than when he is talking about what is happening to LGBTQ people in Jamaica. He inspired me to go and see for myself. While there, I met with the safe house residents as well as other queer Jamaicans. Hearing their stories and seeing the physical scars of what they survived really put my struggles in America into perspective.

Rape, torture, rape, hangings, stabbings, rape, stonings, shootings — did I mention rape?

After my first visit, the journalist in me came back to the US resolved to share the work that Nevin was doing and help find more support. I decided to produce a special podcast entitled “Ring the Alarm” featuring the stories and voices of the men and women I met in Jamaica. On each subsequent trip to Jamaica, I was introduced to more and more people. Eventually, I had men and women in Jamaica reaching out to me to tell me their stories. Many of those I interviewed have been able to escape Jamaica to seek asylum elsewhere, but most have not. Those waiting on emergency relocation or on their country to change their laws and views on LGBTQ people are subjected to being taunted, threatened, fired from their jobs, thrown out of their homes, beaten, stoned, raped, and even killed.

So Much Trouble in the World

Fact. If Jamaica treated the US the way we treat Jamaicans who want to visit here, we’d never be able to vacation in Jamaica. I have watched this modern-day underground railroad up close and personal for the past year. It isn’t easy to relocate queer Jamaicans to countries accepting of Black people, let alone Black LGBTQ people. And while America has rolled out the red carpet to welcome people from other countries, Jamaica hasn’t been one of them. With its own Wikipedia page dedicated to discussing LGBT rights in Jamaica, one could argue that queer Jamaicans seeking asylum in the US could easily prove both credible and reasonable fear for their lives.

Let’s be clear. WNBA player Brittney Griner was not detained in Russia for being a Black lesbian. She was detained for being an American and is being used as a pawn. Griner, unlike queer Jamaicans, at least has the attention of the American government and media, and there are people actively fighting to bring her back home to America. Sadly, celebrity vacation photos in Jamaica are more likely to trend on social media than the murders of LGBTQ people there.

You may be wondering why I am so focused on Jamaica. Of course, there are human rights abuses against queer people taking place in other countries around the world, but not where over 4 million Americans come to vacay each year. That’s only happening in Jamaica. It’s hypocritical of people from the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave’ to turn a blind eye to what’s happening to LGBTQ people in Jamaica and have the audacity to call out other countries for similar atrocities.

As one of the founders of the National Black Justice Coalition, America’s first Black LGBTQ civil rights organization, and more recently, someone who helped escort Democratic donor Ed Buck into a prison cell for his role in the deaths of two Black gay men, I have put in work locally and nationally on behalf of Black queer folks.

Last October, I committed myself to spend one year working with LGBTQ people in Jamaica and using my platform to help call attention in the US to what is happening to queer folks there. From my podcast to my support of the safe house, I’m proud to say that I made good on that promise. It was very important to me that, as an American, I didn’t come to Jamaica with the sense of entitlement that Americans are known to bring with them wherever they go. I came, I listened, and followed the lead of queer Jamaicans.

When I post on social media about my trips to Jamaica, I get a lot of comments decrying my visits. My favorite comments are the ones from people telling me all about Jamaica’s LGBTQ rights abuses — because clearly, I don’t know about them. And even though I don’t usually respond to comments, the ones where someone is telling me about how they’re never visiting Jamaica are my favorite. I expect that attitude from white LGBTQ men and women. But when it’s my own people, members of the Black LGBTQ community, I push back on them and challenge them to come to Jamaica and step outside of the tourist zone and meet with their Jamaican counterparts instead of writing the country off as a whole.

Welcome to Jamrock

It is very easy to look at the situation and blame Jamaicans for the discrimination faced by LGBTQ people.

Fact. Jamaica holds the record for the most churches per square mile than any other place in the world.

Jamaica is a former British colony and, like most of Black Africa, was heavily influenced by established white conservative Christian churches, particularly the Pentecostalists and Seventh Day Adventists. Where their anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and policies have failed in America, these same churches have succeeded in under-developed Black countries. The county still punishes the ‘abominable crime of buggery’ and acts of ‘gross indecency’ between males with up to ten years in prison with hard labor.

Similarly, Rastafarism, a religion as homophobic as fundamentalist Christianity that is followed by a large number of Jamaicans, including many reggae artists, believes in a strict interpretation of the Old Testament — when it comes to anything queer.

None of this pardons Jamaica today for its egregious human rights abuses and state-enabled murders of LGBTQ people. What it does, is put things into perspective and provide context. A context that many white-led queer civil rights groups failed to comprehend when blanketly villainizing Black countries’ treatment of LGBTQ people. Which, by the way, usually causes more harm to the queer people living in those countries than actually helps them.

I look at it as the Jamaican version of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, and the continuation of the mental slavery of Christianity brought to Jamaica by the British colonizers and continued by white American Christian evangelicals.

Weaponizing religion is not a new concept. So knowing and understanding this, the answer for me was not to boycott or villainize Jamaica but the opposite. I chose to visit Jamaica as much as I could, and in doing so, this past year has been one of the most fulfilling years of my life. The friendships I’ve made, the stories I’ve shared, the people who have been helped, and the support I’ve been able to give to my friend Nevin have made it worth it.

Get Up, Stand Up

My trips to Jamaica are by no means all play. It’s never easy for me to listen to stories of rape, abuse, discrimination, and physical violence. I have developed my own self-care routine to help me cope with the triggering effects these interviews have on me.

That said, I look forward to continuing my work in Jamaica and supporting Nevin. Thanks to my podcast, I’ve even heard from queer people in several African countries interested in having me come and amplify their struggles. So for now, it’s work, save, travel, repeat. My passport will have to be pried from my cold dead hands to get this Black lesbian to stop visiting homophobic Black countries.

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Jasmyne Cannick is an award-winning journalist based in Los Angeles. Her Ring the Alarm podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

For more information on the podcast and the LGBTQ safe house in Jamaica, please visit iamjasmyne.com/ringthealarm. Follow her travels on Instagram @hellojasmyne and Twitter @jasmyne.

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HAVANA — Cuba’s highest court has upheld the 14-year prison sentence that a Transgender woman with HIV received after she participated in an anti-government protest in July 2021.

Tremenda Nota, the Washington Blade’s media partner in Cuba, notes Brenda Díaz was arrested in Güira de Melena in Artemisa province on July 11, 2021.

The Güira de Melena protest was one of dozens against the Cuban government that took place across the country on that day.

A Havana court earlier this year sentenced García to 14 years in prison. She appealed her sentence, but Agencia EFE reported the People’s Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the sentence.

The court, according to Agencia EFE, determined García’s sentence was “legal, just” and rational.” The U.S. Embassy in Cuba on Thursday condemned the decision and its ruling that upheld the 15-year prison sentence that journalist Jorge Bello Domínquez received after he participated in the July 11 protests.

“We condemn the confirmation of the discriminatory and unjust 14- and 15-year prison sentences for Brenda Díaz and journalist Jorge Bello Domínguez for their participation in the July 11 (protests) that were announced yesterday,” tweeted the embassy.

A State Department spokesperson last month told the Washington Blade the U.S. is “very concerned about the well-being of Brenda Díaz, especially given reports that she is being held in a men’s prison and is not receiving appropriate medical treatment.” 

The embassy on Thursday reiterated these concerns.

“We express our deep concern over Brenda’s health and the treatment that she is receiving in prison,” tweeted the embassy. “We call upon the Cuban government to unconditionally release Brenda, Jorge and everyone who has been unjustly detained.”

The tweet ended with the hashtag “Prisoners, why?” 

HAVANA — The Cuban government has announced a referendum on the final draft of a new family code that would extend marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples will take place on Sept. 25.

“It will benefit everyone; which shows its inclusive, protective and equal character,” said Justice Minister Oscar Silvera Martínez, as quoted in Granma, the official Cuban Communist Party newspaper, on Friday.   

The National Assembly late last year approved the draft family code. 

A “popular consultation” ended on April 30. Tremenda Nota, the Washington Blade’s media partner in Cuba, reported the last of the family code’s 25 drafts was presented to President Miguel Díaz-Canel and other officials on June 6.

Díaz-Canel and Mariela Castro, the daughter of former President Raúl Castro who is the director of Cuba’s National Center for Sexual Education, are among those who publicly support marriage equality. Cuban voters in 2019 overwhelmingly approved the draft of their country’s new constitution, but the government’s decision to remove a marriage equality amendment before the referendum on it sparked outrage among independent LGBTQ+ and intersex activists.

Efforts to implement the new family code are taking place against the backdrop of the continued persecution of LGBTQ+ and intersex Cubans and others who publicly criticize the country’s government.

Tremenda Nota Editor Maykel González Vivero is among the hundreds of people who were arrested during anti-government protests that took place across Cuba on July 11, 2021.

Yoan de la Cruz, a gay man who used Facebook Live to livestream the first protest that took place in San Antonio de los Baños in Artemisa province. De La Cruz subsequently received a 6-year prison sentence, but he was released on house arrest in May.

Brenda Díaz, a Transgender woman with HIV who participated in a July 11 protest in Güira de Melena in Artemisa province, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison. The State Department told the Blade earlier this month it is “very concerned” about Díaz’s health and well-being and urged the Cuban government to release her.

“We strongly encourage the government of Cuba to release Ms. Diaz or at minimum transfer her to a facility consistent with her gender identity, and to provide her with appropriate medical treatment,” a State Department spokesperson told the Blade.

WASHINGTON — The State Department on Thursday said it is “very concerned” about the well-being of a Transgender woman in Cuba who is serving a 14-year prison sentence after she participated in an anti-government protest last July.

Tremenda Nota, the Washington Blade’s media partner in Cuba, notes Brenda Díaz was arrested in Güira de Melena in Artemisa province on July 11, 2021.

The Güira de Melena protest was one of dozens against the Cuban government that took place across the country on that day.

Tremenda Nota reports authorities at Panamá, a prison in Mayabeque province where Díaz has been held, shaved her head and removed her finger nails before they placed her with male prisoners and forced her to wear men’s clothes. Tremenda Nota also notes prison officials refer to García by her dead name.

Reports indicate a Havana court earlier this year sentenced García to 14 years in prison.

García has appealed the sentence and her mother, Ana María García, on June 17 saw her during a court hearing in the Havana suburb of Marianao. 

García told Tremenda Nota that Díaz, who lives with HIV, has gone to the prison infirmary four times and has been hospitalized twice since she has been incarcerated. Díaz, according to her mother, has access to antiretroviral drugs, but other medications are not always available. García also told Tremenda Nota the food that Díaz receives in prison is “very bad quality.”

“We are very concerned about the well-being of Brenda Díaz, especially given reports that she is being held in a men’s prison and is not receiving appropriate medical treatment,” the State Department spokesperson told the Blade in a statement.

Díaz is among the hundreds of people who were arrested during the July 11 protests.

Yoan de la Cruz, who is gay, used Facebook Live to livestream the first July 11 protest that took place in San Antonio de los Baños in Artemisa province. The same Havana court that sentenced Díaz condemned De La Cruz to six years in prison, but he was released in May and placed under house arrest for five years.

“Cuban state prosecutors have manufactured false or unjust charges, to include ‘sabotage’ for the actions of demonstrators during July 11 to silence dissidents, quash future peaceful protests and intimidate regime critics,” the State Department spokesperson told the Blade. “These protestors have received incredibly harsh prison sentences handed down in politically motivated trials.”

“We strongly encourage the government of Cuba to release Ms. Diaz or at minimum transfer her to a facility consistent with her gender identity, and to provide her with appropriate medical treatment,” added the spokesperson.

The Washington-based International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights is among the groups that have also sought to publicize Díaz’s case.

“A few days before the first anniversary of the peaceful protests known as 11J (July 11), get to know the story of Brenda Díaz, a Trans Cuban woman who is serving a 14-year prison sentence for expressing her gender identity amid the protests. Meet her!,” tweeted the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights.

#Cuba🇨🇺 | A pocos días de que se cumpla un año de las manifestaciones pacíficas conocidas como #11J, conoce la historia de Brenda Díaz, una mujer trans cubana que paga una condena de 14 años de cárcel por expresar su identidad de género en medio de las protestas. ¡Conócela!🧵⬇️ pic.twitter.com/1KgQSeT0vu

— Race and Equality (@raceandequality) July 5, 2022

Plataforma 11M, an independent LGBTQ+ and intersex rights group in Cuba, on Thursday urged Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the independent U.N. expert on LGBTQ+ and intersex issues, to “investigate” Díaz’s incarceration and a September referendum on the final draft of Cuba’s new family code that would extend marriage rights to same-sex couples

Cuba is among the members of the U.N. Human Rights Council that voted on Thursday to renew the independent expert’s mandate.

Pedimos a @victor_madrigal que investigue el encarcelamiento de Brenda Díaz y el próximo plebiscito del Código de las Familias de Cuba».#LibertadParaBrendaDíaz#UnCódigoInclusivo pic.twitter.com/8k3VvLJRtw

— Plataforma 11M 🇨🇺🏳️🌈 (@11M_Cuba) July 8, 2022