(Spoken by Miguel Barnet, president of UNEAC, during the 10th Cuban Activities against Homophobia and Transphobia)

I would like to explain to the audience some things that perhaps they don´t know. We haven´t deal with this issue because it is on top of the Cuban culture nowadays as Mariela said. Here we have Lisset Vila and others colleagues that won’t allow me to lie.

It has been a permanent fight of the UNEAC: from the best and more conscious and sensible Cuban writers and artists. Every time there has been difficult times for homosexuals, lesbians and transgender people, the UNEAC has been there to support them.

Fortunately, those twisted minds had left behind, although there are still views about this issue as difficult and complex that leads to proselytism. But this is a scientific issue. People must take awareness in respect, and for culture, diversity. It is not only about gender, but thinking, esthetic diversity, even politics when this diversity doesn´t offend the basics and essentials principles of socialism.

So, UNEAC is providing this room and this possibility to contribute to this movement not because CENESEX is guided by Mariela, but because it is historical among us.

I remember the difficult seventies and sixties when Armando Hart was voted to head the Ministry of Culture in 1965/76, we had had meetings with remarkable artists regarding to some measures taken during the UMAP because we always have been a discussion center that fights against every kind of arbitrary and irregular minds. Those minds that never understood the truth of our Commander thoughts, not even the cultural politic of the revolution. UNEAC was always in front of.

In a movement like this we cannot stay late, not even playing a second role. We want to be in front of this battle because it is not a political battle, but a scientific one. It is a battle for truly humanist conception of our revolution.

We don’t accept this request because Mariela is the president´s daughter who honors us and we love him so much because he is following, since he was an adolescent, the thought of our Commander. We do this because we are aware, if we are truly artists and writers, we must believe in this thought and we must be pioneers, symbols, in supporting the human wellbeing and a balanced society as our Apostol José Martí dreamed.

We are not following the fashion, we are here being consequents with the historical tradition of this organization, that´s why we are the Cuban National Union of Writers and Artists.

Translated by Juan Felipe Sánchez García