For queer couples in Cuba, moments alone are few and far between, lived out in stolen away places. Rafael and Joaquín know this intimately: The pair, together for seven years, have long found creative ways of being alone in a country where their love cannot be experienced at home around their families. Friends occasionally let them crash for the night so that they can sleep next to one another. Otherwise, they’ll meet in a nearby forest after work, hopping a fence to spend time alone. “This wood was our haven. There was no other way to be together,” Joaquín says. “Society forces us to hide.” For his partner, Rafael, this is the hardest part of being gay in Cuba: the possibility of never being able to live openly together as a couple.

From a legal perspective, Cuba appears to be a leading example of LGBTQ progress in the Caribbean. The Cuban government has moved to grant rights and protections to the community, decriminalizing gay sex in 1979 and offering gender-affirming surgeries free of charge since 2008. The country made headlines in 2018 for moving closer to legalizing same-sex marriage, initially changing the governmental definition in the Constitution from a “union between one man and one woman” to a union between “two people with absolutely equal rights and obligations.” (The proposed change was soon dropped due to public pressure.) Other changes prohibit all discrimination on the basis of gender, gender identity and sexual orientation. In May 2019 the government announced that the Union of Jurists of Cuba is working on a new Family Code to address same-sex marriage.

But homophobia remains pervasive. Behind all of the LGBTQ progress in Cuba is the daily stigma and discrimination faced by queer and trans people in the country. Read more via DailyXtra