Jessica Rabbit Toirac Matos, a trans woman from Cuba, publicly denounced on social media last Sunday an act of transphobia committed by the Provincial Directorate of Culture in the province of Guantánamo.
Through her personal Instagram account, Toirac expressed her outrage and demanded respect and recognition of her rights as a trans woman, stating: “They are transphobic for not allowing trans women, dancers who have been evaluated in shows, to dance on a float.”
This Cuban apologized to her followers on social media, who were waiting to see her dance on a float during the Guantanamo carnival, but her participation has been prevented by the cultural authorities in the province.
Toirac expressed with great indignation his frustration regarding the non-compliance with the Family Code, approved on July 22, 2022, which recognizes the rights of people in the LGBTIQ+ community: “I don’t know where the Family Code is, I don’t know where CENESEX is or the support for trans women.”
In addition, he reported that transphobia in Guantánamo goes beyond the cultural sector: “The province of Guantánamo is transphobic,” he warned, emphasizing the seriousness of the situation.
This person, a victim of discrimination by the Cuban regime, reported that before the parade began, the carnival organizers told her that “only natural women would dance on the floats,” she stated to CubaNet.
"When I presented myself to dance, they told me no, that I couldn't do it because I am a trans woman. It seems that the cultural department gave the order that trans women cannot dance on the floats. I was the only one who wanted to dance, but one of the organizers came and told me just like that, 'you are trans, you cannot dance,'" she pointed out to the cited news portal.
The Alas Tensas platform, which addresses issues related to women and gender problems, disseminated the complaint, considering that Toirac's publication made public this trans woman's dissatisfaction with Cuban public inclusion policies, particularly in the province of Guantánamo.
Although the Cuban regime proclaims inclusion policies, the reality outside the legal sphere is far from reflecting those principles.
In 2023, school authorities prohibited a young Cuban student from the “José Marcelino Maceo Grajales” Pedagogical School in Guantánamo from wearing pants, in another act of transphobia.
Marions Vargas, who is almost 17 years old, is a transgender boy who defends his right to wear the clothing of the gender with which he identifies, but the school staff prohibited him from doing so because "being born with female genitalia restricts him to a skirt as the only possible option," according to a report by CubaNet.
Recently, the former Minister of Culture and current president of Casa de las Américas, Abel Prieto Jiménez, sparked controversy following a homophobic and transphobic tweet.
Despite having deleted the post from his account on the social network X, Prieto did not realize that his words were not welcomed by activists and people close to the LGBTIQ+ community, who took screenshots and shared them on other social media platforms.
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