Independent Groups to Hold Gay Pride Walk

Havana/This coming June 28 Havana’s centrally located Prado will again be the scene of the Gay Pride Walk organized each year by the independent LGTBI community. The call has been launched by several independent groups, among them the projects Puertas Abiertas (Open Doors), Shui Tuix, the Foundation for LGBTI rights, Divina Esperanza (Divine Hope), and Arcoíris Libre de Cuba (Free Rainbow of Cuba), according to information provided to 14ymedio by Navid Fernandez Cabrera, one of the organizers

It is expected that the participants will gather starting at ten in the morning in front of Havana’s Capitol building, and advance along the Prado toward the sea. There, waiting for them, will be some puppeteers to present a show with “muppets.” All along this pedestrian avenue there will be a free distribution of condoms and informational handouts to facilitate an exchange with the people passing through the busy place, explained Fernandez Cabrera.

The members of the Latin American Rural Women’s Front (Flamur) will support the activity with messages concerning No Violence Against Women. At the end of the parade where the Prado and the Malecón meet, a statement will be read in the presence of various projects and accompanying representatives of the LGBTI communities of Pinar del Rio, Matanzas and Santiago de Cuba.

The first of these events occurred in 2011 and since then the walk has been scheduled to mark International Gay Pride Day or on a weekend day close to that date. The National Center for Sex Education (Cenesex) headed by Mariela Castro has chosen, for its part, 17 May as the established Cuban Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.