Cuba's trans people see legal progress with new gender ID law

HAVANA - Victoria Escribano, a young Cuban trans woman, has for years delayed opening a bank account because she wants her name and the gender listed on her legal documents to match her chosen gender identity.

Now after Cuban lawmakers passed a law in July allowing trans people to change their gender identity on their IDs more easily, Escribano is encouraged to take that step.

"For people like me, having a legal basis that protects us, either when doing some paperwork or just stepping into a place, it's a pretty big advance," said Escribano, 21, who works selling handicrafts.

Specifically, the law will permit adult trans people in Cuba to change their legal gender identity, allowing them to have their chosen gender of male or female on birth certificates, government-issued ID cards and other legal documents without having to show proof of gender-affirming surgery, obtain a court order or show they have no criminal record.

The bill, which is expected to come into effect by mid-2026, marks a major step towards legal recognition of the LGBTQ+ community on the Caribbean island.

Minister of Justice Oscar Silvera Martínez said on social media that the law allows "the country to have a modern civil registry."

Ever Luis Valdespino, who works as an orchestra production assistant, said he hopes the new law eliminates bureaucratic hurdles that have made the legal process difficult, if not impossible.

"It's what I've always wanted," said Valdespino.

"It's really embarrassing to have to show your ID card and be frowned upon just because your name and gender marker don't match your body," he told Context/Thomson Reuters Foundation.

'Pinkwashing'

The new law follows other legal gains for Cuba's LGBTQ+ community in the last several years.

In 2022, nearly 70% of Cubans approved gay marriage and adoption in a public referendum, allowing same-sex marriage and civil unions and allowing same-sex couples to adopt children.

"On paper, the legislation adds to a growing body of formal recognition of LGBT rights in Cuba, alongside same-sex marriage and adoption rights," said Cristian González, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch LGBT rights program.

Yet such legal changes, he said, can be seen as a form of so-called pinkwashing, where superficial efforts mask a lack of actual change or improvement.

In Cuba, no independent press is allowed, political opposition is illegal and it has been a Communist-run state since after the 1959 revolution.

"Without guarantees of free expression and association, these advances risk functioning as a form of pinkwashing, signalling progress while systemic violations of socioeconomic, civil, and political rights continue," González said.

Once the law is implemented, the National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX), part of the government's public health ministry, will be involved.

Interested trans people will undergo a type of assessment carried out by CENESEX’s multidisciplinary group that will include a psychiatrist, an endocrinologist and others.

The CENESEX group will issue a ruling that will become part of a file the Civil Registry office will use to actually change the identity documents.

But ensuring the new law is put into actual practice, especially for trans people living outside of the capital Havana and in rural areas, will likely be an issue.

"CENESEX is still a kind of centralised structure that isn't present in all parts of Cuba," said Verde Gil, the coordinator at Transmasculines of Cuba Group, a LGBTQ+ rights group.

"That creates a limitation for those who don't live in Havana."

Bureaucratic complications and some officials claiming ignorance of LGBTQ+ rights already pose obstacles for Cuban trans people trying to access state health care and counselling services as well as hormones for gender affirmation processes, according to activists.

For Escribano, the challenge for Cuba's trans community extends beyond legal gains to changing social norms and attitudes.

"There may be many laws. But as long as our society doesn't learn to respect us, we will continue to fight for inclusion," she said.

(Reporting by Eileen Sosin. Editing by Anastasia Moloney and Ellen Wulfhorst.)