Los Angeles LGBTQ Center, June 20 – the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice hosted a forum, “Why Queer People Should Stand with Cuba Against Trump’s Attacks.” Three queer and trans members of the Struggle for Socialism Party spoke (Onyịnye Alheri, Melinda Butterfield, and Gregory E. Williams); all three traveled to Cuba after 2022 to learn about Cuba’s new Families Code, documented in the book “Love is the law: Cuba’s queer rights revolution.” Following is the talk from Williams, a public health worker from New Orleans and co-editor of Struggle-La Lucha news.
By Gregory E. Williams
Same ruling class attacking us here is starving Cuba
Good afternoon Los Angeles comrades. Although I am happy to be with you during Pride, this is a heavy Pride – maybe one of the heaviest since the height of the AIDS epidemic in this country. The situation is such that we can’t afford to ignore what Pride is really about: resistance to oppression.
The Trump administration is viciously attacking LGBTQI+ people, with trans people receiving the worst of it. This is part of a broader attack on the working class and all oppressed people, being carried out on behalf of the ruling class. Trump and Elon Musk cut off over 770,000 children from receiving SNAP food assistance, while Musk just became the world’s first trillionaire, propped up by this capitalist government with military contracts. The emergence of the first trillionaire isn’t unrelated to the attacks on queer and trans people: both are symptoms of a capitalist system in decay, and more rabid because of it. Trump is also a symptom.
Inequality has reached grotesque proportions. The rich and their fascist minions are emboldened. This parasitic ruling class is trying to claw back everything people won through struggle, including Black voting rights, access to health care, and trans people’s right to simply live.
This same capitalist class attacking us here – led by Trump – is attempting to destroy Cuba, as they have tried to do to Palestine, Iran, and so many other countries and peoples who stand up and fight. Cuban women and LGBTQI+ people are directly in the crosshairs.
U.S. imperialism’s long game in Cuba
Make no mistake, the U.S. imperialists’ goal of destroying the Cuban revolution is not new. What we are seeing now is an intensification.
Cuba’s economy has been strangled by the U.S. blockade since 1962. The purpose was always to immiserate the population to force regime change. In Cuba and everywhere else, the targets of U.S. sanctions have always been civilians.
A declassified 1960 State Department Memorandum, “The Decline and Fall of Castro,” explains the doctrine plainly. In this document, Lester Mallory – then Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs – said that the majority of Cubans supported the socialist government. (April 6, 1960, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Cuba, Volume VI, Document 499.) Therefore, the U.S. strategy must be “disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship.” He argued that Washington must work to deny “money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation, and the overthrow of government.”
The intensity of the blockade has ebbed and flowed, but the objective has remained the same: destroy Cuba’s political-economic system and reclaim it as a neocolony of the U.S., like it was in the 1950s under the brutal dictator Batista. Trump tightened the blockade during his first term, dealing Cuba a terrible blow that compounded with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The genocidal Biden administration kept it in place, only taking Cuba off the bogus State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list at the end of his term. Trump put it right back on. Cuba’s infant mortality rate went up 148% during this period, according to a study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Before Trump came back in office, Cuba was already suffering from perhaps its worst crisis since the Special Period of the 1990s, when Cuba lost its main trading partner, the USSR. In his second term, Donald Trump has attempted to outright starve Cuba to bring about its collapse. Beginning in December 2025, the U.S.implemented an almost complete oil blockade, resulting in the collapse of the electrical system. Ambulances can’t run. Doctors are performing surgery with cell phone lights. This is mass murder.
Today, U.S. imperialism has taken off the mask. If they talk about bringing democracy and prosperity nowadays, it’s like a formality, a nostalgic nod to the imperialist propaganda of the preceding era. Increasingly, Trump doesn’t even try to hide the fact that this is being done so U.S. corporations and banks can plunder Cuba like they’re now doing to Venezuela: the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control now supervises Venezuela’s oil policy, financial channels and access to revenue. That is neocolonial occupation without the costly burden of maintaining boots on the ground.
Washington wants to reverse 67 years of progress
If Cuba becomes a failed state, the result will not be more democracy or better living conditions, but the opposite: unimaginable misery. Cuba might be overrun by narcotrafficking cartels, whose customers are primarily in the U.S. International financial institutions dominated by the U.S. would likely impose privatizations and austerity – the “shock therapy” that dramatically lowered life expectancies across the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries. Cuba’s health care and educational systems would be dismantled so foreign capitalists can cash in.
This would be a disaster for LGBTQI+ people. The gains won with the passage of the new Families Code in 2022 would be overturned. The Families Code is a major overhaul to the country’s constitution regarding sexuality, gender, and family life. It is one of the world’s most progressive codes on families, and it passed with 66.85% in favor. This code greatly expands the rights of women, queer and trans people, and ultimately all Cubans.
The code was developed and adopted via a mass-democratic process that happened across the country, with debate everywhere from neighborhood assemblies to labor union halls. Cuba’s socialist revolution made this possible, at a time when capitalist governments like that of the U.S. are trying to erase queer and trans people and push back all gains made by working-class and oppressed people.
This mass-democratic process resulting in the Families Code is typical of Cuba’s approach to politics, building up consensus from the street level. That means giving working-class people the chance to shape the direction of society, unlike in the United States, where access to the political arena depends upon access to millions of dollars. Cuba used this approach to develop its 2019 constitution as well as the 2022 Families Code.
Cuban democracy in action: the 2025 sports law
As momentous as the passage of the Families Code was, the blockade has prevented its full implementation. I’m going to read a statement sent to us by a Cuban trans activist, Verde Gil Jiménez, General Coordinator of Grupo Trans Masculinos de Cuba (GTMC) and a contributor to our book, Love is the law: Cuba’s queer rights revolution.
Before I share Verde’s testimony, I want to say a bit about GTMC’s work, because it demonstrates important aspects of Cuba’s socialist democracy. This organization of trans masculine individuals was founded in 2023 and is led by young people. They educate, advocate, and do mutual aid.
They helped shape Cuba’s comprehensive sports law implemented in 2025. The law involves some liberalization (e.g., allowing some endorsements and foreign investment) but maintains the state’s leading role in undergirding the country’s sports system, with the focus being on access to sports as a public good. The law aims at more equity in sports. For example, it establishes protocols for identifying, preventing, and punishing discrimination based on “gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ethnicity, skin color, religious belief, disability,” etc. (Article 14.1) and protocols to ensure women’s equitable access to the sports system (Article 16.1)
In 2024, just before this law was passed, Afro-Cuban Ely Malik Reyes became Cuba’s first officially recognized trans athlete, competing in the men’s division of sanda, a form of mixed martial arts. He was assisted in his transition by Cenesex.
When we had the launch party for “Love is the law” in Havana on July 29, 2025, Mariela Castro spoke about the sports law. Castro leads Cenesex, the organization that has spearheaded the process of LGBTQI+ liberation in Cuba since 1989, and pushed for the Families Code. Cenesex is actually part of the government, operating under the Ministry of Health. Castro explained that because of the years of work done, “people are already convinced” about the expansion of rights. She said:
“I’ll give you an example: the Cuban Sports System Law. We at Cenesex had put more energy into the Law on Children, Adolescents, and Youth and the Civil Registry Law, which was a challenge that would take many years.
“And, honestly, we hadn’t put much energy into sports. So it was written in a very general way, so that the situation could be resolved in the regulations that were supposed to follow.
“So people were very relaxed. And at the last minute, [name] sent me, via WhatsApp, a number of ideas and changes, aware that it was quite late, because the law had already been widely discussed. That bill was already almost perfect for taking to the National Assembly.
“He was aware of it. Still, with support from the legal team at Cenesex, a letter was prepared for the drafting committee, informing them that this group of transmasculine activists was making this proposal, and that we considered it fair to include them.
“The drafting committee immediately responded to us. So, which ones were included in the law? And which ones were included in the regulations that would be applied later? There was no discussion. They were assimilated.
“They thought it was very fair and in line with the Constitution. It didn’t change the essence of what was already written; on the contrary, it strengthened it. … It was impressive. We’ve changed. Society has changed.”
Now, can you imagine a small group of trans young people having this kind of access to the legislative process in the U.S.? Can you imagine anything like this kind of democracy here? The billionaire’s (now trillionaire’s) government in Washington – including the unelected Supreme Court – is too busy stripping us of our rights. If the U.S. oligarchs get their way, Cuba’s popular democracy would be totally dismantled.
Verde Gil Jiménez: blockade undermines Families Code, hurts all Cubans
Following is Verde’s statement sent for today’s gathering.
It’s really hard to talk about the needs of one specific group when an entire population is going through a slow genocide, being pushed without shame into hunger, poverty, and collapse. It almost feels pointless to talk about double discrimination or intersectionality when anyone in Cuba today is already living in a vulnerable situation with many layers and dimensions. Living in a state of survival that has nothing to do with human dignity. This is a state of war, a tearing out of the soul, affecting the mental and physical health of every family, all while living in constant fear that bombs might fall one morning.
Today, we need to talk about all of Cuba, not just minorities — even though minorities are the ones carrying the most pain. It’s about putting our voices, our groups, our platforms (big or small) to work to save a country. To stop this silent war that is killing hundreds of people. To stop another criminal military intervention in the world.
As an activist, I recently took part in the ILGALAC Conference [Asociación Internacional de Lesbianas, Gays, Bisexuales, Trans e Intersex para América Latina y el Caribe]. Cuba came up many times. People denounced the blockade and praised the important progress our country has made in recognizing and expanding LGBTIQ+ rights. I could feel the appreciation, love, and solidarity that exists. But statements and symbolic acts aren’t enough to stop the fascist machine.
We are forever grateful for the solidarity from many groups that are organizing to collect material aid: food, medicine, clothing. But it’s not enough to save us from this terrible crisis. In fact, less and less of that aid is able to get past the effects of the blockade.
Let me give you some facts: The UN has thousands of tons of food bought overseas that it can’t bring to the island because major international shipping lines, afraid of Trump’s sanctions, have stopped taking new orders to Cuba. The World Food Program (WFP) has about 11,000 tons of food and nutritional supplements stuck at the ports of Mariel and Santiago de Cuba. UNICEF and UNDP also have dozens of containers sitting in those same ports. On top of that, the WFP has over 8,000 tons stored in warehouses inside the country, but they’re being distributed much slower than needed. The UN says it needs more than 5 million liters of diesel for 12 months of work, but it hasn’t found a sustainable way to get it. As a result, 20,000 tons of food in Cuba can’t be delivered or is being distributed with huge difficulties. According to the UN, those 170 containers of essential supplies that have already arrived in Cuba are worth about 6.3 million dollars.
On a smaller scale, we see this in our own group, the Trans Masculine Group of Cuba (GTMC). Thanks to Gregory, we recently received a donation of binders, transtapes, and other trans health supplies. [An activist with New Orleans-based Workers Voice Socialist Movement delivered it.] But now we’re stuck: we don’t know how to get those donations outside the capital. Mail services are shut down, and travel between provinces is extremely limited. We’ve always prioritized people in rural areas, but sadly, today they are much more isolated and left behind.
We LGBT Cuban activists know how much progress would be lost if U.S. policy takes over. We’re talking about a government led by pedophiles, racists, criminals, and corrupt people — who, from their very first days in office, have taken away rights, stigmatized minorities, and spread hatred and violence against LGBTIQ+ people, especially trans people.
Some people, whether out of naivety, pro-annexation feelings, or pure fascism, support the U.S. dominating Cuba. They bring back the old Monroe Doctrine, assuming the result would be a “free and prosperous republic.” But the history of Latin America and the world shows the opposite. Still, those of us in sexually diverse communities know very well the terrible consequences that losing our sovereignty would bring. We would become potential victims of daily violence, targets of hate speech, and disposable tools for election campaigns.
None of this denies that Cuba’s economic and political model needs to change. That is also urgent, and it has left us more vulnerable. But that change is in the hands of the Cuban people, the citizens. It’s up to us to fight those inside the country who are political enemies of our justice project. This can only come from deepening Cuba’s revolutionary process, not overturning it. Cuba needs more socialism, not less.
We know perfectly well that the U.S. doesn’t care about democracy, or popular participation, or fairness. The U.S. also doesn’t care about regional security, and it has no moral authority to say what is or isn’t a threat. CUBA IS NOT A THREAT TO THE U.S.; IT IS A STRONGHOLD OF HUMANISM AND RESISTANCE. The U.S. — which extorts, invades, and sanctions anyone who doesn’t serve its interests — is what poses a danger to every nation. The whole world knows this.
What’s clear is that a people who are exhausted and worn down by the daily fight to survive don’t have the strength to organize and change their situation. The crisis breaks us apart and drains us. Activist groups have almost no resources to work with. International aid agencies are also leaving the country because they’re scared of the current situation. And the people who make up our project — humble, everyday people — can’t get as involved as before because of all the stress and limitations they face trying to do anything.
Also, the deep crisis in the country has stopped and severely weakened the implementation of services and public policies, including measures focused on gender, equity, and inclusion of diversity. For example: training for civil registry workers to start applying the new law that lets trans people change their legal sex without surgery or medical procedures — that training hasn’t reached all areas. This is also because public workers keep leaving the state sector for better-paying private jobs. The blockade has caused an extremely serious weakening of our institutions, which means our hard-won rights are stuck.
Still, there is hope. In the middle of such difficult circumstances, just a few weeks ago, I saw a Facebook post where a friend was celebrating that a lesbian couple had access to assisted reproduction. Thanks to the Families Code and MINSAP [Ministry of Public Health] protocols, they can now have children. I also read that Cuba is restarting production of 16 cancer drugs for oncology patients. Cuba is still committed to utopia, even though wars keep hitting it and holding back its full potential for love, humanism, and revolution.
I didn’t want this message to be too long, but I think it already is. And I’m grateful to Gregory, a humble and committed brother, for giving me a few minutes to speak in this space. But I want to end by saying that today, U.S. social movements have a key role in human history. It’s the U.S. American people themselves who can stand up and demand an end to the Zionist war, an end to the genocide in Palestine, an end to ICE’s persecutions, an end to the blockade of Cuba, and an end to interference in Latin America. That internal, popular, revolutionary force is the one best able to challenge the system and bring together the power to undermine the murderous, imperialist order that runs the world under the control of economic and supremacist elites.
We have to look straight into the eyes of this dark era and understand what side we’re on and what our role is.
Much admiration and a big hug to all the brave people in the U.S. fighting from the belly of the beast.
Don’t stop talking about Cuba. Cuba deserves to live. Cuba and the U.S. can be friendly countries with beautiful results for the world. Homeland is humanity.
Join the Struggle-La Lucha Telegram channel