Fidel Castro should not be celebrated, says journalist James Kirchick
The legacy of a figure as divisive as Fidel Castro is mixed and complicated. While some mourn the loss of the Cuban revolutionary leader who they revere as defying the U.S. and defending the poor. Others, including Cuban exiles, view Castro as a brutal dictator:
To Daily Beast correspondent James Kirchick, the communist leader who ruled Cuba for 50 years is among many things, a murderer of gay people. A fact he says that can't be ignored.
- Related Link: Fidel Castro's Horrific Record on Gay Rights
"There was a general Latin American machismo that wasn't exclusive or unique to Cuba... but it was politicized by the communist revolution that saw homosexuality as a bourgeois decadence, a capitalist import that distracted people from the class struggle," Kirchick tells The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.
Even though homosexuality was decriminalized in 1979 Kirchick adds gays were targeted again during the AIDS crisis of the 1980's.
"The government quarantined HIV positive people into sanitariums that were referred to at the time by the head of the World Health Organization's AIDS program as 'pretty prisons.'"
The Castro family and gay rights
Kirchick is also critical of Mariela Castro, the niece of Fidel Castro. He sees her LGBTQ activism as "window dressing".
"I think it says a lot about the country that the most visible LGBT activist is the straight daughter of Raul Castro. The regime does not tolerate independent organizations," says Kirchick.
Kirchick believes that the country's struggle for LGBT rights is part of a bigger democratic struggle.
I don't see why Cuba can't have a free press, independent labour unions, parliamentary democracy and gay rights as well.- James Kirchick, Daily Beast correspondent
Kirchick tells Tremonti he thinks Prime Minister Trudeau should be embarrassed about his remarks after the passing of Fidel Castro.
"I think he owes an apology to the many, many Cubans whose family members were killed by the regime."
Listen to the full conversation at the top of this web post.
This segment was produced by The Current's Lara O'Brien.