Cuba’s first LGBTQ hotels

The Rainbow Hotel, described as Cuba’s first LGBTQ hotel, reopened in December following Covid restrictions. While guests enjoyed the five-star service by the pool or a walk along the pristine sands, Cuba has not always been so welcoming to the gay community.

In the early part of communist leader Fidel Castro’s rule, homosexual men and women were sent to work camps for supposed “re-education”.

Attitudes on the island have markedly improved since then but outside of tourist hotels the Cuban government has clamped down on recent protests and some LGBTQ activists say that the hotel is an attempt by the state to mask its poor human rights record.