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X-WR-CALNAME: Governing the Terrain Called Beauty: LGBTQ Law in Cuba and th
 e Queerness of Political Economies
X-WR-TIMEZONE:Pacific Time (US & Canada)
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260811T150831Z
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_49093563856786
DTSTART:20250417T003000Z
DTEND:20250417T020000Z
DESCRIPTION:Join Libby Adler (Professor of Law and Women’s\, Gender and S
 exuality Studies\, Northeastern University) for her talk on LGBTQ law in C
 uba on April 16 at 5:30PM.\n\nHow did Cuba\, a country with no tradition o
 f liberal legal rights\, minimal grassroots organizing\, and a weak privat
 e sector\, progress from imprisoning homosexual men in forced labor camps 
 in 1965 to legalizing same-sex marriage in 2022? Are there specifically so
 cialist ways of advancing the legal interests of LGBTQ people? This talk t
 races law and sexual identity in Cuba over the course of decades and expla
 ins how Cold War and post-Cold War political-economics shaped not only att
 itudes toward\, but also conceptions of\, sexual identity in Cuba. Before 
 the 1959 Revolution\, US presence in Cuba was profoundly exploitative. Cub
 ans and others from around the Caribbean labored in slave-like conditions 
 for the benefit of US-based companies in rural areas while women\, girls\,
  men\, and boys provided sexual services in the city to tourists and milit
 ary and corporate personnel. The US mafia ran Havana as a playground for A
 mericans who were flush with cash in the aftermath of WWII\, paying off co
 rrupt Cuban officials and circumventing the authority of the FBI and IRS. 
 When Fidel Castro came to power\, the degradations inflicted on the Cuban 
 people manifested as extreme homophobia against effeminate gay men\, who p
 resented a constant reminder of national humiliation. The 1960s were a per
 iod of exclusion\, raids\, and abuse for homosexuals at the hands of Cuban
  authorities. Beginning in the mid-1970s\, East Germans authored progressi
 ve texts that\, translated into Spanish and sold throughout Cuba\, enabled
  some initial steps forward — strictly on socialist terms such as public
  health and sex education. When the Soviet Union collapsed\, Cuba — whic
 h had been dependent on Soviet oil\, consumer goods\, export sugar markets
 \, and subsidies — was forced to open itself to international tourism an
 d foreign capital investment\, effectively permitting external discourses 
 of sexual identity to seep into urban social life. Over the last 35 years\
 , Cuba has inhabited a tense space between its socialist ideology and the 
 dire necessity of opening itself to global markets. Adaptations to politic
 al-economic pressures have continually reshaped Cuban sexual identities\, 
 from the old homosexual—that reminder of imperialist exploitation—to t
 he new gay citizen.\n\nCo-sponsored by the Program in Feminist\, Gender\, 
 and Sexuality Studies\, Queer Student Resources\, Center for Latin America
 n Studies\, and the Cuba Observatory.
GEO:37.428531;-122.170373
LOCATION:Building 460\, Margaret Jacks Hall\, Terrace Room
SUMMARY: Governing the Terrain Called Beauty: LGBTQ Law in Cuba and the Que
 erness of Political Economies
URL;VALUE=URI:https://events.stanford.edu/event/governing-the-terrain-calle
 d-beauty-lgbtq-law-in-cuba-and-the-queerness-of-political-economies
CATEGORIES:Lecture/Presentation/Talk
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