Mariela Castro, director of the National Center for Sexual Education of Cuba (Cenesex), described this Wednesday as “oversized and full of fantasies” the situation of Brenda Díaz, the woman trans sentenced to 14 years and seven months in prison on charges of public disorder, sabotage and contempt, after participating in the protests on July 11, 2021 on the Island.
Castro, a parliamentary deputy and daughter of General Raúl Castro, assured that Díaz, 29, “is doing very well” in prison, but did not mention that he is serving his sentence in the men’s wing of a prison for HIV patients. human immunodeficiency) in Güines, Mayabeque, and that her mother, Ana María García, has denounced the mistreatment and discrimination she suffers.
It is “little gossip” that feeds a “media show by the press and corporate agencies” to “attack” the regime, Castro snapped in the round of questions and answers at the conference, where according to the EFE news agency, she was questioned about the case. of Diaz. The Cenesex, which shared the recording of the meeting, he cut off the exchange with journalists during the inauguration of the XVI Cuban Conference against Homophobia and Transphobia.
It is “little gossip” that feeds a “media show of the press and corporate agencies” to “attack” the regime
Díaz “does not know that he is a media figure that they have invented against Cuba. He has not even found out about it,” he continued. “Her mother of hers even expressed that she felt very calm that Brenda was still there.”
Ana María García has been blunt in her complaints since her daughter’s arrest. On April 19, in conversation with 14ymedio, claimed that Diaz had been “badly beaten by a prison guard.” The woman has systematically reported the harassment she has suffered at the hands of the “repressors” of the Ministry of the Interior.
Several weeks ago, Castro visited the prison where Díaz is imprisoned and pointed out that Cenesex has drawn up strategies to “advise” the Ministry of the Interior in its treatment of LGBTIQ prisoners. Opinions, she stated, have been “very favorable.” Likewise, she added that they are allowed “corporal expressions in accordance with their identity” and they are guaranteed “a very good diet” and even “better than what their families have,” she said.
He also referred to the legal obstacles for transsexuals to register their gender change in the civil registry, a currently very cumbersome process that the regime took advantage of to send Brenda to a prison that does not correspond to her gender identity. On the other hand, he applauded the intervention of Cenesex in the drafting of the Family Code, which he defined as more advantageous than the previous one in matters such as marriage and adoption by homosexual couples.
Díaz’s initial sentence – 14 years in prison – was added to the sentence for “contempt” after, on February 12, he defended himself against homophobic insults directed at him by a guard. Before her claim, the officer assaulted her, according to the defense version. After the incident, she Brenda was isolated for 15 days without the possibility of bathing or receiving medical attention.
The XVI Cuban Conference against Homophobia and Transphobia will be held from May 3 to 20 in two cities on the island
The XVI Cuban Conference against Homophobia and Transphobia will be held from May 3 to 20 in two cities on the island: Havana and Sancti Spíritus. Castro dedicated the event to the 35th anniversary of the foundation of Cenesex and the approval of the Family Code.
“The construction of consensus is a complex process in which contradictions have to be worked on,” said Castro, congratulating himself on Cenesex’s political projection of more than three decades. He alluded to the suspicions of the regime’s leadership with his project, which had the ideas of Carlos Marx as a reference, although “he did not speak of homosexuality.”
The deputy clarified that Cenesex had always had the blessing of the Communist Party and the Government, and that in this way it had achieved a political program to break the “taboo” and “talking softly” about homosexuality and transsexuality on the Island.
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