Abstract
Queer public space in Cuba is very visible and easy to find. Havana’s popular gay cruising area is located along a city street called La Rampa and continues down to Havana’s coastal highway, called the Malecón. This cruising area, as well as virtually all of Havana’s public gay cruising areas, is located in the predominately white, wealthy, touristy area of El Vedado. Whether walking along La Rampa or sitting out at the corner of Avenues 23 and G, one will see the large numbers of gay men, men who have sex with men, and trasvestis (gay men who pass as women) who overwhelm the bustling touristy area where these nonheteronormative spaces are located. If one looks for women when perusing these areas, it is easy to notice that gay men far outnumber lesbians. In my estimate, as of January 2006, gay men and MTF (male-to-female) transsexuals outnumbered lesbian-identified women by at least by ten to one. When race is taken into account, there are far fewer black lesbians present in public gay scenes than black gay men.
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© 2012 Shaka McGlotten and Dána-Ain Davis
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Saunders, T.L. (2012). Grupo OREMI. In: McGlotten, S., Davis, DA. (eds) Black Genders and Sexualities. The Critical Black Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137077950_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137077950_7
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