Representing Sexual Transactions in Times of the 'Cuban Thaw'. The Legitimisation of Sexuality Regulation in Cuba's Anti-Trafficking and HIV Prevention Strategies

In its resistance to colonial/imperial injustices, the Cuban revolutionary government has appropriated the fight for gender and sexual justice, and ´opened up´ towards feminist concerns, such as gender equality and respect for diverse sexual orientations. Yet, the states´ ´prostitution politics´ continue to police – often violently – gendered, sexualised, and racialised bodies under the disguise of ´saving ´ the ´victims´ from ´trafficking´ – whether the persons involved see themselves as such or not. From a sex-positive, intersectional feminist, and poststructuralist understanding of gender, sexuality, and the state, this research juxtaposes the dominant ´prostitution-as-trafficking´ discourse with the seemingly incompatible, and ´invisibilised´ public health discourse on ´transactional sex´. Following principles of Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis, I map these discourses by investigating what ´the problem´ with sexual transactions is represented to be in Cuba´s contemporary anti-trafficking and HIV-prevention strategies, which policy ´solutions´ are suggested, and which discursive, subjectification, and lived effects follow from these representations. This research allows me to shed light on how the Cuban government navigates contradicting revolutionary discourses and portrays itself as a legitimate regulator of sexuality before the international community.