Current:Home > reviewsCuba’s first transgender athlete shows the progress and challenges faced by LGBTQ people -SummitInvest
Cuba’s first transgender athlete shows the progress and challenges faced by LGBTQ people
View
Date:2025-04-15 09:03:25
HAVANA (AP) — Ely Malik Reyes stepped onto the cordless platform and began delivering powerful punches and spectacular flying kicks against his combatant. He lost the fight, but won a major victory that day by becoming the first transgender athlete to officially compete in a Cuban sports league.
Reyes, a 26-year-old transgender man, competed for the first time in the male 60/65-kilogram (132/143-pound) category of sanda, a demanding contact sport that blends martial arts like kung fu with kickboxing.
The June 1 milestone marked the latest step toward inclusion in Cuba, one of Latin America’s most progressive countries when it comes to LGBTQ rights. Yet, Reyes himself acknowledges having to overcome challenges, including the lack of medications, a law that sets conditions to change his gender on his ID and the “suspicious looks” he sometimes gets from people in the street.
“Educating society doesn’t happen in two days,” he said.
Reyes, who lives with his girlfriend in a colorful house on the outskirts of Havana, supports himself by repairing air conditioners, as his sanda fights are unpaid. He has been on hormone therapy for two years, but says he does not want full genital reassignment surgery.
His transition has been far from easy.
It began over four years ago when he visited Cuba’s Center for Sexual Education and consulted with a psychologist. He then saw endocrinologists and underwent tests to obtain a “tarjetón,” a special card that allows Cubans to purchase medication at pharmacies, enabling him to get the hormones needed for his transition.
But as Cuba’s economic crisis deepened, medications became scarce so he had to rely on other people who brought testosterone from abroad. While not illegal, the practice can be very expensive. “I’m an athlete; I can’t neglect my hormone treatment. ... I have to stay on top of it,” he said.
Changing his identity in official documents posed yet another challenge. While Reyes was able to legally change his name last year, his ID card still displays an “F” for female. That is because Cuba’s current law requires full genital reassignment surgery for this change — something he does not want to do.
LGTBQ activists in Cuba say a solution could come soon through a new Civil Registry law currently being drafted in the National Assembly that would allow people to change their gender on their ID cards — or eliminate this requirement altogether.
The changes stem from Cuba’s 2019 constitution, which gave way to the 2022 Family Code that allowed same-sex couples to marry and adopt as well as surrogacy pregnancies among other rights. Though approved via referendum by a large majority, the measure faced opposition from evangelical groups and other conservative groups that disagreed with its provisions.
While Reyes’s ID still formally identifies him as female, sports authorities accepted his male status based on his hormone treatments, medical reports and self-identification. This allowed him to compete in the male category of the Cuban Fighters League.
“It’s something new; it’s a challenge that I have embraced with much love,” said Reyes’s coach, Frank Cazón Cárdenas, the president of Cuba’s sanda community who handled the athlete’s registration.
Cazón said he had to work on two fronts to make it happen: discussing Reyes with the other sanda male team members — and securing approval from the powerful Cuban Sports Institute, which ultimately authorized Reyes to participate in the male category.
Cuba’s LGBTQ community celebrated Reyes’s milestone, noting it was the result of a hard-fought battle.
“It was only a matter of time,” said Francisco “Paquito” Rodríguez Cruz, a well-known LGBTQ rights activist in Cuba, referring to the sports institute’s unprecedented greenlight for a transgender athlete to take part in an official competition. “It’s the logical consequence of what has been done in the last 15 or 20 years.”
“It’s obviously a cultural process of change that is still controversial,” Rodríguez said.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
veryGood! (59)
Related
- Trump issues order to ban transgender troops from serving openly in the military
- A man and daughter fishing on Lake Michigan thought their sonar detected an octopus. It turned out it was likely an 1871 shipwreck.
- Map shows where mysterious dog respiratory illness has spread in U.S.
- $600M in federal funding to go toward replacing I-5 bridge connecting Oregon and Washington
- Kylie Jenner Shows Off Sweet Notes From Nieces Dream Kardashian & Chicago West
- Annika Sorenstam's child interviews Tiger Woods' son, Charlie, at PNC Championship
- Report: NHL, NHLPA investigating handling of Juuso Valimaki's severe facial injury
- Shipping companies announce crucial deadlines for holiday shipping: Time is running out
- Skins Game to make return to Thanksgiving week with a modern look
- The Best Gifts for Couples Who Have Run Out of Ideas
Ranking
- Pregnant Kylie Kelce Shares Hilarious Question Her Daughter Asked Jason Kelce Amid Rising Fame
- How Jonathan Scott and Zooey Deschanel Are Blocking Out the BS Amid Wedding Planning Process
- NCAA, states seek to extend restraining order letting transfer athletes play through the spring
- UNC-Chapel Hill names former state budget director as interim chancellor
- South Korea's acting president moves to reassure allies, calm markets after Yoon impeachment
- 2024 Ford Mustang GT California Special: A first look at an updated classic with retro appeal
- Federal judge rejects request from Oregon senators who boycotted Legislature seeking to run in 2024
- Ja Morant feels 'guilt' over Grizzlies record in first public comments since suspension
Recommendation
South Korean president's party divided over defiant martial law speech
Departing North Carolina Auditor Beth Wood pleads guilty to misusing state vehicle, gets probation
US-China relations are defined by rivalry but must include engagement, American ambassador says
Storm system could cause heavy rain, damaging winds from N.J. to Florida this weekend
Elon Musk's skyrocketing net worth: He's the first person with over $400 billion
Lauren Graham Reveals If She Dated Any of Her Gilmore Girls Costars IRL
What is wrong with Draymond Green? Warriors big man needs to harness control on court
Iran says it has executed an Israeli Mossad spy