No gay marriage in 5 remaining Leninist nations ?

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

China
Laos
N Korea
Vietnam
Cuba

Do any of these allow gay marriage yet? There is no Proletarian reason to disallow gay marriage, so why not allow it? Even Cuba, which has made so many strides in gay rights, where Raul's (straight) daughter has taken up the cause as a personal cause (good for her!) Are any of them actually seriously trying to push for it? And are there any practical reasons why these states haven't done it? I mean, there's literally no cost in letting gays marry except for a few added tax breaks or legal rights, so what is the pretext for "socialist" governments not doing the right thing?

Also, what is with the blatantly homophobic and disgusting repression of homosexuals in the Socialist world? On one hand, I have a lot of respect for many of these revolutionary figures. But sending Gays to labour camps for "Socialism" is no better than sending gays to "conversion" camps to make them straight for "Christianity". Banning gay sex is something they do in nations with an excessively metaphysical (and dogmatic) morality, such as Iran or Saudi Arabia or christian fundie states, not "socialist" states!

I remember reading a quote where Engels calls homosexuality "Bourgeoise", but taking that quote and using it as the basis for a repressive policy seems not only anti-socialist, but anti-scientific (Marxism being a scientific approach to socialism should have been critical of Engel's claim, instead of taking it as a given). Basically, it seems Engels knew some bourgeoise Queens, and deduced from them that there must have not been working class gays.

On the other hand, Fidel Castro has apologized for actions under his government. for this he should be commended. But they still haven't allowed gay marriage. Also, are the narratives of gay men repressed by the state given a lot of air and space, or is it quietly ignored by state media? If Castro does recognize that mistakes were made, it would be good to cover those mistakes in the history books, instead of covering it up. And why are states like China still so ambivalent in embracing gay rights still to this day?

There seems no excuse for this in 1930, let alone 2011, considering the radical and critical nature of marxist ideology.

[TC]

Ricardo Alarcon the president of Cuba's National Assembly has been working enacting gay marriage in Cuba since 2007

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2007-02-26-opcom_x.htm

as has Cuban culture minister and CCP Politburo member Abel Preito since 2008

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-6818.html/

In 2009 they began drafting legislation in the national assembly to legalize same sex marriage, which Mariela Castro discusses in this excellent interview below:

http://www.towleroad.com/2009/01/mariela-castro.html

And legalization of gay marriage will finally be voted on this July in 2011.

http://repeatingislands.com/2010/12/15/cuban-plans-to-legalize-same-sex-marriage/

I am not sure why it took them four years to get a same sex marriage bill to a vote - though I suspect it was probably a legally complicated issue because the Cuban Constitution has a provision intended to prohibit patriarchal family arrangements, requiring "full equality of rights and duties for the partners" and a "joint-effort" in childcare, also defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman - though at the time it was written they surely didn't think about same sex marriage, they were thinking about egalitarian marriage compared to patriarchal marriage.

Anyways, assuming it passes, it will be great to see same sex marriage in Cuba in just a few months.

[Nolan]

None of them are "Leninist" or "stalinist" or whatever. Especially China, Laos, and Vietnam.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

Ricardo Alarcon the president of Cuba's National Assembly has been working enacting gay marriage in Cuba since 2007
....

I am not sure why it took them four years to get a same sex marriage bill to a vote - though I suspect it was probably a legally complicated issue because the Cuban Constitution has a provision intended to prohibit patriarchal family arrangements, requiring "full equality of rights and duties for the partners" and a "joint-effort" in childcare, also defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman - though at the time it was written they surely didn't think about same sex marriage, they were thinking about egalitarian marriage compared to patriarchal marriage.

Anyways, assuming it passes, it will be great to see same sex marriage in Cuba in just a few months.

Took too long, but good. Anyway, it always seemed to me that Cuba was the most authentic attempt to build a Communist system in the Soviet bloc. Perhaps this is evidence of that. And Mariela Castro seems like a good woman, this was a constructive cause for her to take up.

Would be nice if other "populist Socialist" states like Venezuela or Bolivia or Nicaragua would take the lead, but I suppose the high sense of religiosity and the relative youth of the socialist movement means that the government is unwilling to spend political capital on a fight over an issue which only effects 10% of the population. Yet this is not a very comforting excuse; it's nice to think you don't need to wait decades to institute reform like this.


None of them are "Leninist" or "stalinist" or whatever. Especially China, Laos, and Vietnam.

Maybe not. But they *say* they are. I was more speaking to the regime's internal ideological justification for its policies, and not whether they are really Leninist countries. As far as the governments are concerned, and their published propaganda (from what I understand) still claims to uphold Lenin's ideas. Those three states have other revisions to account for as supposedly "leninist" states too I suppose, such as exploitation of workers, expensive health care and extensive corruption. But my issue is with how these governments reconcile this particular position on gay marriage has been un-critical and taken as a given the backwards view of family relations of the religious and feudal worlds, with the fact that they purport to uphold socialist ideologies?

[Queercommie Girl]

All are deformed worker's states at best, though Cuba is probably the least deformed.

However, Cuba isn't an ideal socialist system either. There is still bureaucratic deformation, corruption and lack of direct worker's democracy, but of course it beats China by far, with China's gross economic inequality, rampant privatisation, lack of social welfare, extremely oppressive state machine, etc.