That was his origin, but his history shows that it was kind of irrelevant in the sense that he spent his life supporting revolutions in Latin America

fwiw that stuff is waaay more caffeinated than the stuff you make yourself

Memes aren’t agitprop?

Imagine using AI as a reference

Stop peddling horseshit.

That’s what you are… a peddler of horseshit - you know, because that’s what you are doing… peddling horseshit.

Kindly stop that.

edit: Somebody requested that I “rebutt” the obvious horseshit peddled by the obvious horseshit peddler

So… courtesy of [deleted] from r/AskHistorians 6 years ago:

Summary

While LGBT people were oppressed following the Cuban revolution, there is no good evidence that Che Guevara was personally involved in any significant way. The system of forced labor (which was used to persecute gay men) was established after Guevara had left Cuba. There is also relatively little evidence of homophobia in Che’s personal life; the whole of his (very prolific) writing contains only one homophobic statement (a line in The Motorcycle Diaries, discussed below), which uses language that was unfortunately quite common for the time and place. Claims that Che “frequently used homophobic slurs” appear to be baseless as well.

Forced Labor and LGBT Persecution in Revolutionary Cuba

After the Cuban revolution, a system of labor camps (called Military Units to Aid Production) were established, as an alternative to conscription for those who were unwilling or unable to join the military. One group of people who were prohibited from military service, and thus made to work in these camps, were homosexual men (when people say that Castro and the communists “put gay people in camps,” this is what they are referring to). This system lasted for several years, until its abolition in July 1968. The persecution of LGBT people in revolutionary Cuba (principally through the use of this system) is discussed in a 2010 paper in the journal Social History.

While this system of forced labor was undeniably a human rights violation of the highest order, to pin the blame for this on Che is simply ahistorical. The camps were first established in November 1965, by which time Che had already left Cuba to spread the revolution abroad (see Jon Lee Anderson’s book). At that time when the camps were set up, Che Guevara was having a terrible time in the Congo, not oppressing LGBT people in Cuba.

The blame for the labor camp system should instead be placed upon Fidel Castro, who himself admitted the injustice of his government’s homophobia in a 2010 interview with the Mexican newspaper La Jornada:

Yes, they were moments of great injustice, great injustice… If someone is responsible, it’s me.

In short, while LGBT people were indeed persecuted after the revolution, the blame for this should not be laid at the feet of Che Guevara.

Homophobia in Che Guevara’s Personal Life

The claims about Guevara’s homophobia ultimately go back to one particular quote from The Motorcycle Diaries (which is pretty much the only authentic quote we have in which Che even mentions homosexuality):

He was an introvert and probably gay, too. The poor man was drunk and desperate because they hadn’t invited him to the party. He began to yell and insult people until some of them beat him up and gave him a black eye. This episode bothered us, because apart from him being a pervert and a bore, we liked him. (Diarios de Motocicleta, page 223)

This quote is certainly homophobic, but unfortunately it was probably not unusual language for a Latin American man in the 1950’s (or frankly, a man in most places in the 1950’s), and it doesn’t rise to the level of “extremely virulent and vocal homophobia,” as Che is often accused of having harbored.

Most other allegations surrounding Che’s homophobia are baseless. Take for instance the claim that Che had the American poet Allen Ginsberg deported from Cuba for calling him “cute” (a claim that often appears in “things you didn’t know about Che” articles on right-leaning websites). This claim is quite easy to refute, seeing as Che and Ginsberg were never in Cuba at the same time. According to Ginsberg’s diaries, he was in Cuba from January 18th to February 17th of 1965, during which time Guevara was on a diplomatic tour (having left for Moscow on November 4th of 1964), from which he would not return until March 15th (see page 592 of Anderson’s book in the sources), about a month after Ginsberg had been deported. Most other “Che hated gay people” claims are of similar merit (that is to say, none).

Sources:

Gender policing, homosexuality and the new patriarchy of the Cuban Revolution, 1965–70 (Social History), by Lillian Guerra

La Jornada interview with Fidel Castro, 2010

The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto “Che” Guevara

Iron Curtain Journals: January-May 1965 by Allen Ginsberg

Che: A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson