State-Enforced Oppression and Criminalization
Across the Cuban regime, the historical evolution of Trumpism in the United States, and the Nazi regime in Germany, the LGBTQAI+ community has endured persistent and often brutal state-enforced oppression and criminalization—manifested through laws, policies, and social engineering designed to suppress nonconformity and erase queer identities from society. In Cuba, following the 1959 Revolution, the government initially designated homosexuality as a deviation and a threat to revolutionary ideals, enacting laws criminalizing homosexual behavior and establishing policies to exclude LGBTQAI+ individuals from social, economic, and educational opportunities. Similarly, Trumpism, particularly in its recent manifestations, has sought to reverse legal protections, define sex strictly in binary terms, and encourage executive actions cancelling recognition of transgender and nonbinary identities, as well as rescinding anti-discrimination regulations. During the Nazi era, the regime amended existing legal codes (notably Paragraph 175) to not only criminalize but to facilitate the arrest, imprisonment, and death of homosexual men, while also driving queer organizations and cultures underground through state violence. In each case, the criminalization of LGBTQAI+ people not only restricted their public and private lives but provided a legal and cultural mechanism for further violence and marginalization.
Forced Detention, Labor, and Violence
All three regimes implemented or encouraged forced detention, labor, and direct violence as instruments to discipline, “correct,” or eliminate LGBTQAI+ populations. In Cuba, the 1960s saw the establishment of UMAPs (Military Units to Aid Production), in which gay men, religious minorities, and other “undesirables” were interned and subjected to forced labor, with reports of physical and psychological abuse. Under the Nazi regime, those accused of homosexual acts were marked with the pink triangle, imprisoned in concentration camps, subjected to forced labor, medical experimentation, torture, and mass murder—with tens of thousands perishing under such treatment. In the context of Trumpism, while there have not been concentration camps or labor camps akin to those under Cuba or Nazi Germany, recent executive actions and statutory proposals have sought or called for the removal of trans people from appropriate prison housing, the denial of medically necessary care, and efforts to criminalize gender nonconformity, all of which pose direct threats to the safety, autonomy, and well-being of queer people.
Suppression of Public Visibility and Expression
Another common violation is the systematic suppression of public visibility, assembly, and expression by LGBTQAI+ individuals and groups. In Cuba, while some reforms have been instituted over time, unsanctioned public gatherings or activism—such as spontaneous Pride marches—continue to face crackdowns, arbitrary arrest, harassment, and police violence, effectively stifling independent LGBTQAI+ mobilization. Under Trumpism, public visibility has been targeted through the promotion of laws banning discussion of LGBTQAI+ topics in schools, rolling back anti-discrimination policies, and threatening educational institutions that recognize trans identities, directly undermining the freedom of expression and affirmation of queer communities. The Nazi regime’s approach was to eradicate all LGBTQ+ organizations, publications, and gathering places, enforcing a culture of fear and silence where queer existence became both a legal and mortal danger. In each regime, suppression of public presence and queer culture has been central to the strategy of social and political marginalization.
Denial of Protections, Rights, and Social Participation
A shared aspect of violation is the denial of legal and social protections, as well as the exclusion of LGBTQAI+ individuals from the full spectrum of social participation and civil rights. In Cuba, despite recent constitutional changes theoretically granting equal rights regardless of sexual orientation, actual protection against discrimination remains inconsistent, with many queer and trans people still facing workplace and educational exclusion, or being denied justice in cases of violence or abuse. Trumpism’s policy direction features the planned removal of anti-discrimination protections in employment, healthcare, and education at the federal level—along with attempts to subject federal consideration of sex and gender strictly to an immutable binary, thus erasing legal recognition of many LGBTQAI+ identities. The Nazis’ legal framework entrenched the criminal status of queer individuals, prevented claims to justice or redress, and denied survivor status or reparations even after World War II, further punishing and silencing queer survivors. The systematic withdrawal and denial of legal protection under state power is a commonality across all three systems.
Use of Medicalization, Conversion, and “Correction”
State-driven medicalization of queerness—and the accompanying efforts at “conversion” or “correction”—has been a recurring instrument of control across these regimes. In revolutionary Cuba, homosexuality was at times pathologized; individuals were removed from schools or institutions, subjected to attempts at “re-education,” or forced into separate facilities under the guise of being “at risk” or “contaminating” the broader population. The Trumpist project has sought policies that restrict or ban gender-affirming care, with executive orders and regulatory attacks on healthcare providers or insurance coverage for transgender people. Meanwhile, the Nazi regime actively promoted medical experimentation and forced sterilization or castration as punitive measures against homosexual men, inflicting deep trauma and often fatal consequences. The rhetoric of “cure” or “normalization” is both a literal and ideological tool of harm.
Policed Gender, Surveillance, and Societal Ostracism
Each regime has policed not only sexuality, but also gender expression and identity, with surveillance, social ostracism, and state punishment for those deemed nonconforming. The Cuban government removed LGBTQAI+ individuals from jobs, schools, and public life, regulated “acceptable” gender performances, and fostered a climate of “machismo” to discipline masculinity and femininity according to revolutionary ideals. The Trumpist right, via legal and policy action as well as public discourse, targets trans and gender-nonconforming people—especially youth—seeking to curtail their healthcare, limit participation in public spaces such as sports, and compel disclosure or involuntary outing in educational settings. Under the Nazis, gender nonconformity was itself targeted, with trans and gender-nonconforming individuals arrested, medically abused, or killed, often marked as threats to the Aryan racial and gender order. Social shunning and state surveillance became mutually reinforcing across all three political systems.
Instrumentalization for Political and Ideological Gain
In all instances, oppression and marginalization of the LGBTQAI+ community serve as tools for wider political ends—whether consolidating power, unifying a perceived in-group, or mobilizing support against scapegoated minorities. In revolutionary Cuba, suppressing queer communities was framed as vital to moral, socialist renewal and national unity. Trumpism has rallied supporters through the rhetoric of “protecting children” and “restoring truth,” casting LGBTQAI+ rights as antithetical to American values or a threat to societal order, and passing or proposing sweeping anti-LGBTQ+ measures as symbolic of broader cultural “restoration”. The Nazi regime’s anti-LGBTQ+ persecution was leveraged as part of its broader campaign to “cleanse” the German Volk, stoking moral panic and using homophobic propaganda to build consensus and legitimize extreme authoritarian rule. State violence against queer communities thus becomes both a method and symbol of authoritarian power.
Mechanisms of Social Fear, Silence, and Erasure
Fear, silence, and the erasure of queer lives and histories are pervasive outcomes under all three regimes. In Cuba, even contemporary advances are undermined by self-censorship and the absence of records on gender-based violence, as dissenters risk exclusion, violence, or exile. Trumpist efforts to ban educational content, remove LGBTQ+ topics from public discourse, and restrict rights are accompanied by a chilling effect, deterring the open expression of queer identities in many communities. The Nazi campaign was so devastating that post-war silence—fueled by stigma, ongoing legal persecution, and erasure from the official record—persisted for decades, with recognition of queer Holocaust victims only emerging much later. Social and historical memory is shaped, and scarred, by this enforced silence.
Conclusion
A comparative examination of the Cuban regime, Trumpism, and the Nazi regime reveals a catalogue of convergent strategies and violations: criminalization, forced detention and labor, violence, suppression of public presence, denial of protection, punitive medicalization, gender policing, political scapegoating, and the creation of environments of fear and enforced silence. Each system has weaponized state power to systematically marginalize, harm, and attempt to erase LGBTQAI+ existence from public and private life, using law, policy, propaganda, and direct violence as tools of persecution and control. The result is a shared legacy of suffering for queer communities that transcends geographic and temporal boundaries—demonstrating the dangers of unchecked political and ideological campaigns against vulnerable minorities.
