Defying Trump’s cuts: L.A. LGBT Center activist shares resistance strategy in Havana

The following talk was presented on July 29 at the ICAP (Instituto Cubano de Amistad con los Pueblos / Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples) House of Friendship, in Havana, Cuba, with the participation of the Venceremos Brigade and LGBTIQ+ activists from the United States, along with members of the community networks linked to Cenesex (Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual / National Center for Sex Education), among other invited individuals.

This event was the Cuban launch of the book published in the U.S. by Struggle-La Lucha, “Love is the law: Cuba’s queer rights revolution,” which is about the revolutionary Families Code that has expanded the legal rights of women, children,  seniors, LGBTQI+ people, and more.  Onyịnye Alheri is a social worker in Los Angeles and an activist with the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice and the L.A. LGBT Center. She went to Cuba with the book delegation. 

I’m going to try my Spanish here because we’re in Cuba and it’s important to talk the language of the people that we’re visiting, but I will also speak some moments in English. Thank you. 

Entonces, yo soy Onyịnye. Yo soy una trabajadora social en Los Angeles, California.

So I’m Onyịnye. I’m a social worker in Los Angeles, California. Like Gregory mentioned, we at the L.A. LGBT Center have been fighting all year, especially in support of trans people and gender non-conforming people. 

Entonces, como Greg nos dijo, yo estoy trabajando para el centro LGBT y hemos estado luchando en defensa de las personas trans durante todo el año.

And it’s been a huge struggle, but the L.A. LGBT Center is fortunate to be well-funded.

Ha sido una lucha difícil, pero por suerte el centro LGBT está bien financiado. 

But at the same time, due to the attacks by Donald Trump’s administration, we have lost millions of dollars in the last seven months alone. 

Aún así, debido a los ataques de la administración Trump, el centro ha perdido bastantes millones de dólares para su financiación.

But to Gregory’s point [asking how the struggle in L.A. is going], I wanted to just highlight some of the wins that we have made. Because, initially, I was going to present on all the laws that are in place to attack trans people and queer people in the U.S.

Aún así, me interesa mucho presentar las victorias que hemos tenido. Hay muchos ataques hacia la comunidad, pero es importante destacar lo que hemos ganado. 

So recently, we, the L.A. LGBT Center, sued the Trump administration along with six other organizations around the United States. And we won. 

Recientemente nuestra organización junto a otras seis organizaciones en Estados Unidos demandó a la administración de Donald Trump. Y ganamos. 

I don’t know how widely this was publicized. Definitely not by the liberal media for obvious reasons. But it’s important to say that we did this after having lost $21 million, after being attacked, after having MAGA supporters come to our homeless shelters and threaten our young trans and queer people.

No sé cómo habrá sido publicitado esto por los medios liberales, pero bueno, vencimos después de haber perdido $21 millones, después de haber sido atacados por miembros de MAGA, personas que estaban a favor de la administración de Trump, después de una larga lucha contra grupos de este tipo.

And the way that we did this is what feels most important to highlight because it’s very similar to how the Families Code was passed here in Cuba. And that was through grassroots outreach, including knocking on neighbors’ doors, flyering at different events, raising money from non-federal sources.

And that’s something that felt important for me to highlight because what stood out in this book was how democracy was truly implemented in the passing of this law. Unlike in the United States, where even on the first day of Trump’s presidency, we saw executive orders made without any input or approval from the people.

Esto es muy diferente a lo que sucede en los Estados Unidos donde la administración de Trump enseguida, en su primer día, empezó a llevar a cabo leyes ejecutivas o órdenes ejecutivas que es totalmente contrario a lo que muchas veces es lo que quiere el pueblo.

I want to close out our talk with some inspiration and just say that despite all of the federal attacks and all of the state-sanctioned violence against us, we can fight back and we can win!

Quiero cerrar nuestra charla con algo de inspiración y simplemente decir que, a pesar de todos los ataques federales y toda la violencia sancionada por el estado contra nosotros, podemos contraatacar y podemos ganar!