“Love is not a sin”

MATANZAS (AP) — Proud to wear a rainbow-colored clerical stole and a rainbow flag on her collar, the Rev. Elaine Saralegui welcomed everyone to her LGBTQ+ inclusive church in the Cuban port city of Matanzas.

“We are all invited and no one can exclude us,” Elaine Saralegui told the same-sex couples holding hands and sitting on wooden benches at the Metropolitan Community Church where he had recently married his wife.

These words and these types of meetings were previously unimaginable in the largest country in the conservative and largely Christian Caribbean, where hostility once morest homosexuals remains widespread.

Repression

Cuba repressed homosexuals following the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro and sent many to labor camps. But in recent years, the communist-ruled island banned discrimination once morest homosexuals and, in 2022, a government-backed “Family Code” approved by popular vote allowed same-sex couples to marry and adopt children. .

Members of Cuba’s LGBTQ+ community say it was a watershed that has allowed them to embrace their gender identity and practice their worship more freely in a country that for decades following the revolution was officially atheist. Over the past 25 years, it has gradually become more tolerant towards religions.

“It’s something very big. There are few words to say (that) it is the opportunity to realize the dream of many people,” said Maikol Añorga, who was with her husband Vladimir Marín, near the altar, where during last Friday’s service they joined other parishioners. who took turns placing offerings of white and pink wildflowers in gratitude to God.

“It is the opportunity for all people to be present here,” he added, “and always meet and participate without distinction of gender, without distinction of race, without distinction of religion.”

The doctrine of the Catholic Church still rejects same-sex marriages and condemns sexual relations between gay or lesbian couples, calling them “intrinsically disordered.” However, Pope Francis has done much more than any pontiff to make the Church a more welcoming place for the LGBTQ+ community.

In December, the pope formally approved Catholic priests blessing same-sex couples, a policy change aimed at making the Church more inclusive while maintaining its strict ban on gay marriage.

Code

The Family Code faced opposition from the country’s Catholic Church, as well as the growing number of evangelical churches that have multiplied throughout the island.

Demonstrations once morest LGBTQ+ rights have dwindled since 2022. But back then, evangelical pastors spoke from the pulpit, handing out Bibles and pamphlets in the streets, invoking God’s “original plan” for unions between men and women, while calling gay relationships a sin.

Still, the measure was approved by almost 67% of voters. It happened following a huge government campaign of national briefings and extensive official media coverage during a time of food shortages and blackouts that caused thousands of people to emigrate to the United States in one of the worst economic crises to hit Cuba. in decades.

At the time, President Miguel Díaz-Canel told Cubans in a video message that he was pleased with the broad support the measure received despite tough economic challenges. He celebrated with the tweet: “Love is now law.”

For years, the LGBTQ+ rights movement has been proudly led by the Caribbean island’s best-known advocate for gay rights: Mariela Castro, daughter of former President Raúl Castro and niece of his brother Fidel.

“This only brings happiness, this only makes people feel truly worthy, respected, loved, considered — true citizenship, with rights and duties,” said Mariela Castro.

“I think we have taken a very valuable step, but a step that requires continuity and work, especially dialogue and education and communication to help us all be happy families,” he added.

Long before same-sex couples were granted the right to marry, Mariela Castro was defending that right while training police on relations with the LGBTQ+ community and hosting symbolic ceremonies in which Protestant clergy in the United States and Canada blessed unions as part of the annual Pride parade.

“For me it was a very beautiful spiritual experience. And I saw that for those people too,” commented Mariela Castro, who directs the National Center for Sexual Education of Cuba and is a member of the National Assembly. “First it was that love is law. Now love is law and we are going to continue celebrating it.”

Fidel’s support

In 2010, his uncle, then-retired President Fidel Castro, acknowledged that he was wrong to discriminate once morest homosexual people. Asked regarding this, she said it helped mark a turning point for public attitude.

“I think it was honest, that it was good, that it was healthy, that he said this, because that helped those who were still riding on prejudices understand that thinking changes,” he commented.

In the first years following the 1959 Revolution, homophobia in Cuba, he said, was no different from that of the rest of the world. In the United States, psychiatric authorities considered homosexuality a mental disorder and gay sex was a crime in most states. Today, Russia—a major supporter of Fidel Castro when it was the core of the communist Soviet Union—is countering the global trend of greater acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community with a multi-pronged crackdown on LGBTQ+ activism.

Cuba’s previous Family Code, which dates back to 1975, stipulated that marriage must be between a man and a woman, not between two people, which excluded couples who had been together for a long time from inheritance rights.

New law

The new law goes beyond marriage equality — which activists tried to include in the Constitution in 2019 without success — or the possibility of gay couples adopting children or using surrogates. It also covers the rights of children, older adults and women.

The first members of Elaine Saralegui’s congregation began meeting more than a decade ago on the terrace of a house in Matanzas to sing and pray.

“The stars were our roof and when it rained we had to meet in the room, which was small,” recalled Elaine Saralegui. In 2015, with the support of the US-based Metropolitan LGBTQ+ Community Churches, they converted a house into their church, installing wooden pews and a stained glass cross hanging above the altar. Below, a local Tibetan Buddhist group that meets during the week keeps musical instruments as an example of interfaith partnership.

“This church is a family,” says Elaine Saralegui, who has a tattoo of the Jesus fish on one of her forearms and wears a Buddhist bracelet. “It is a sacred space, not only because there is a cross or because there is an altar, but because it is the most sacred space for people — where people come to have a safe space.”

After receiving communion, parishioner Nico Salazar, 18, said he was glad to have found a safe space following members of an evangelical church he attended growing up asked him not to return when he accepted his gender identity. .

“It is the essential thing of the Bible: God is love, and other Churches should emphasize that, rather than repressing and harming others with a supposed sin,” said Elaine Saralegui, who was born a woman and this year began hormonal treatment.

“Sinning and loving are not the same,” said Salazar, who was wearing a cross-shaped pendant.

“And love,” he added, “is not a sin.”