"Obvious Gays" and the State Gaze: Cuban Gay Visibility and U.S. Immigration Policy during the 1980 Mariel Boatlift

Abstract

During the cold war relations between the United States and Cuba were tense. Because of this political acrimony Cubans as a group had been accorded preferential treatment for their symbolic value as people fleeing communism. However in the same era homosexuals were formally and categorically excluded by U.S. immigration policy. Even as Armando and other gay-identified Mariel Cubans were traveling by boat to the United States the country of their destination was recodifying a long-standing immigration policy that explicitly excluded homosexuals. Because of its massive scale the Mariel migration also posed procedural challenges to any systematic identification of immigrant characteristics. Finally given the national media attention focused on the boatlift the identification of homosexuals posed a public relations dilemma for the U.S. government. These complications are clearly seen when focusing on the ways in which homosexual Cuban men entering the United States were seen and not seen by the U.S. state gaze. During the boatlift conflicting immigration policies and procedures clashed as men who were both Cuban and visibly gay entered the country under the glare of the media spotlight. (excerpt)