(14 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY: AP AND SNTV CLIENTS MAY USE
ASSOCIATED PRESS – AP AND SNTV CLIENTS MAY USE
Havana, Cuba – 13 April 2025
1. Various of transgender men’s soccer team playing against a women’s team
2. Founder of “Translúcidos”, Merle Ramirez on the field
3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Merle Ramírez, transgender man:
“We are the first transgender men’s team established in Cuba, and this serves as a way to become visible through sports, a highly controversial topic within the transgender community.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS – AP AND SNTV CLIENTS MAY USE
Havana, Cuba – 04 April 2025
4. Photo exhibition with title (Spanish) "I Demand the Right to Be a Monster"
5. Various of trans men looking at a photo exhibition of them
6. Various of trans men posing in front of their photos
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Merle Ramírez, transgender man:
“There is very little representation of trans masculine individuals voiced by trans masculine voices or trans men. It’s great to gain visibility and for others to recognize our story and want to tell it, but I believe it’s better if we tell our own story.”
8. Gay Pride flag and Trans Pride flag hanging in the front of the gallery
ASSOCIATED PRESS – AP AND SNTV CLIENTS MAY USE
Havana, Cuba – 13 April 2025
9. Tossing a coin with Che Guevara’s face in the air to start a soccer match
10. Feet and football
11. ’Translucido’ goalkeeper Davon Cornell, on the field
12. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Davon Cornell, Translucido goalkeeper:
“I don’t ask for acceptance; I don’t ask for anything. We just want them to know that we exist, that we are not a unicorn, that we are not from another planet. We are here.”
13. Transgender male soccer team and female team applauding on the pitch
STORYLINE:
Cuba’s first transgender men’s soccer team kicked off their first ever match in Havana this weekend.
The aim of the game was to mark International Trans Visibility Day, which the trans community on the Caribbean nation has turned into a month-long series of events.
The “translucidos” , translucid in English, played a friendly match against an all-female team in Havana that, regardless of the result, was hailed as a victory by both sides.
"We are the first transgender men’s team established in Cuba, and this serves as a way to become visible through sports, a highly controversial topic within the transgender community." said 29-year-old Merle Ramírez, one of the founders of ‘Translúcidos’, a project that seeks to bring together transgender men and carries out cultural and support activities.
Beyond the soccer field, Merle Ramírez champions the cause of trans men in his work as a photographer and has recently opened an exhibition in a gallery in old Havana.
Despite the provocative title, “I Demand the Right to Be a Monster,” the exhibition portrays trans men in everyday life, holding their children and engaging in daily activities.
“Society knows nothing about trans men, that we exist, or our masculinities.” Said Ramírez
Cuba has gone a long way since the initial decades of the Cuban Revolution, when gay people faced severe persecution, including imprisonment.
It wasn’t until the late 1980s that some legal changes to the rights of the LGBTQ+ were guaranteed by legislation.
Since 2008, Cuba legalized gender reassignment surgery, making it the first Latin American country to fully cover such procedures and hormone therapy within its national healthcare system but demands a medical diagnosis of “gender dysphoria,” which also raised criticism among activists.
AP Video shot by Ariel Fernández and Milexsy Durán
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/94aab8848d6e47e0978a39d777330412
Author: AP Archive
Go to Source
News post in April 20, 2025, 12:05 am.
Visit Our Sponsor’s:
News Post In – News
