2021 was a key year in Cuban history, especially due to the anti-socialist demonstrations of July 11 and 12, known as 11J. That same year, a massive movement from civil society preceded all that anti-system energy: the “To School, But Without Gender Ideology” (ALEPSIG) campaign. Despite leading the rejection of policies of the totalitarian state and sustaining efforts that led to the greatest political defeat of Castroism on its own turf, this revolt seems to have been almost completely ignored by the Cuban media and demonized in the few mentions it received from academia.

ALEPSIG was born in May 2021 when a group of parents who were members of various churches on the island read for the first time Resolution 16/2021 of the Castroist Ministry of Education. The legislation violated the religious freedom of families by teaching content about sexuality and human nature contrary to the conscience of believers and perpetuated the violation of parents’ right to choose the education given to their children.

Although without a structural connection, ALEPSIG upheld the message of “No” to the legal imposition of gender ideology (GI) on the island, which had begun with the “For the Original Design” campaign in 2018. Both initiatives went beyond the purpose implied in their names: with plain language, without intellectual jargon, they addressed fundamental problems such as school indoctrination and attacks on freedom of expression and conscience. They mobilized a critical generation and a well-organized and militant sector of the population within the evangelical community, and they channeled the general repudiation of Cubans against the regime and in defense of family and marriage, pillars of society.

It was a counter-revolution for common sense against the revolutionary nonsense of gender ideology and socialism. The parents of ALEPSIG were concerned about the imposition of laws such as Resolution 16/2021 and the Castro regime’s “Family Code.” The first would infect the state education system, a centralized system that would forcibly include every child and adolescent on the island. The second would expand, in black and white, the State’s powers within the family, rewriting that concept to the point of emptying it of meaning and, with the coercive force of the law, further weakening parental authority in the family sphere.

The campaign involved tens of thousands of people of all faiths, ages, races, and both sexes in signature drives, religious services, fasts, and other peaceful actions nationwide. It added critical thinking to the public agenda against the neo-Marxist cultural wave promoted from the Palace of the Revolution, and halted a totalitarian law for at least three years — Resolution 16/2021 has still not been fully implemented today. There was no similar citizen mobilization in the first quarter of the 21st century in Cuba.

But ALEPSIG committed a sin that neither the State, nor the press, nor academia have forgiven to this day: it mobilized and championed freedom in a conservative key, promoting the freedom to speak the truth. If the reader, in 2026, Googles the name ALEPSIG, there will be almost no interviews with its organizers, articles (laudatory or otherwise) in foreign or independent media, and no opposition leader — much less a Castro supporter — endorsing their work. It’s as if it had never existed.

At the forefront of the initiative was the same type of Cuban to whom it appealed: the common man. United by faith and their role as parents, the campaign was led by Episcopal pastor Javier Serrano in Bayamo; audiovisual producer Sandy Cancino in the capital; and maxillofacial surgeon Oscar Rivero, with whom I was able to speak in Camagüey before he went into exile.

Rivero graduated as a stomatologist in 1995 and is now a respected university professor. In the Cuban scientific community, he is known as the author of “Oral Surgery: A Selection of Topics,” the first book on the subject published in Cuba, chosen by the National Commission of the Stomatology Program as a textbook for the country’s universities and winner of the 2019 Annual Health Award. There is not a trace of the vanity in Rivero that would overwhelm others.

Leading ALEPSIG had significant consequences for his otherwise tranquil life. To this day, the doctor remains on the blacklist of those under travel restrictions — individuals whom the State prohibits from leaving the country. This violation of his freedom of movement has prevented him from attending professional events and has forced him to decline job offers abroad. However, it was inspiring to hear him admit, after summonses from the political police and the nervous breakdown his wife suffered as a result of the harassment: “I am afraid, of course! Afraid of not doing what God commands.”

Here is my interview with Oscar.

When and why was ALEPSIG founded?

ALEPSIG was born from civil society; it brought together fathers, mothers, and families, both non-believers and believers, and it is not organized or supported by any national or foreign institution. In May 2021, a group of Cuban parents who had been following the actions of the Ministry of Education (MINED) and the National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX, led by Raúl Castro’s daughter) created it. And upon seeing the pro-gender ideology changes that were coming, we drafted a Declaration.

There, we expressed our rejection of the “Comprehensive Sexuality Education Program with a gender and sexual and reproductive rights approach” in the National Education System.

It wasn’t accidental; there were reasons for drafting the declaration, which was received by the Office of the Minister of Education, Ena Elsa Velázquez Cobiella, through the Office of Citizen Services.

In the letter you mentioned, they weren’t mincing words. They promised that, “If no public response is given to all the demands, we, the parents, guardians, and representatives of the children, will withdraw them from the educational centers when the next school year begins.” This pressure tactic was later repeated in statements from denominations such as the Western Baptist Church.

For years, we had seen that the curriculum design of general education was opening spaces for the introduction of gender ideology in Cuban schools.

Since 2011, Resolution 139 included actions to present sexuality with a gender perspective, as the State calls it. The regulation, while intending to introduce elements of gender ideology, advocated for general actions — not so incisive. It was heavily criticized by Mariela Castro herself.

Then we noticed the MINED’s involvement in the VIII Cuban Congress on Education, Guidance, and Sexual Therapy in June 2018. We were alerted by the fact that it was held under the motto: “For schools at the forefront of comprehensive sexuality education.” They intended to introduce a curriculum that would consolidate a whole set of unscientific ideas to children aged 0 to 18. During our monitoring of information about gender ideology, someone sent us a copy of Resolution 16/2021 issued by the Ministry of Education on February 26, 2021. This legal document did not appear on official government websites. This raised doubts; it could have been false information.

If the resolution’s issuance was true, it violated Article 165 of the regime’s own constitution: “laws, decree-laws, presidential decrees, decrees, resolutions, and other provisions of general interest issued by the competent bodies shall be published in the Official Gazette of the Republic.”

Trusting in God, we drafted the Declaration as parents and sent it digitally to the Office of Citizen Services. Later, after discussing the matter with education officials, we confirmed that the version of the Resolution leaked to us by the informant was authentic and that it had been introduced by taking advantage of the isolation caused by COVID-19, even though parents were unaware of it.

We understood that, with the reform of the new Constitution of 2019, the State expected a rapid globalist implementation in Cuba, motivated by the injection of money via the U.N.’s 2030 Agenda — which promised a transformation towards global “economic, social, and environmental sustainability” and equality, based on industrial slowdown and gender ideology.

For these reasons, we founded the campaign. We organized it at the national level, with representations in the provinces and a small group of coordinators who develop the strategies to be implemented in the different stages we projected from the beginning of our work.

Who made up the campaign? What motivated you to start it?

We are part of civil society. Fathers and mothers, ordinary people from all social strata, farmers, intellectuals, professionals, believers, teachers, retirees, young people, artists of all religions, who place family and values ??at the center. Unlike the promoters of gender ideology — all with pompous titles, who despise Western values.

We are not discussing a doctrinal or theological issue. We even had the support of homosexuals who disagreed with the implementation of gender ideology in Cuban society, especially in schools.

In an interview with Evangelical Digital, you mentioned that the campaign’s work was like the biblical struggle between David and Goliath. What did you mean by that?

From the very beginning of ALEPSIG, we parents witnessed the behavior of state institutions in minimizing the possibilities of achieving our objectives. We knew beforehand that it wouldn’t be easy; it meant questioning education, one of the banners that the Revolution had always raised. Let’s say it would hurt sensitivities.

We had to act with compartmentalization, so that the campaign wouldn’t be infiltrated by the political police and its progress wouldn’t be hampered. The adversary was cunning, the battle might seem favorable to them; but we Christians have always trusted that He who is with us is greater than those who are against us.

We didn’t have the resources to mobilize the parents, the families; we couldn’t access any media outlets, and we even suspected (as it turned out) that not even the independent media would give us coverage, but we could do our work through social media.

The newspaper ABC stated that if Cuban parents opposed “inclusive education,” they would be violating the duty contained in articles 138 and 191 of the new Castroist “Family Code,” and could be deprived of “parental responsibility.” This could also be applied against dissident parents, since article 191 allowed it in cases of “vicious, corrupting, or criminal conduct,” charges leveled against opponents. What were ALEPSIG’s main demands?

Elimination of content associated with gender ideology at all levels of education in Cuba, and repeal of the legal support or basis that guides its introduction in schools.

In addition, we asked that the right of parents to choose the type of education to be given to their children be respected, something enshrined in Article 26.3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Spanish newspaper ABC highlighted how, in one month, the parents of ALEPSIG gathered 140,000 signatures by hand, house by house. It put it this way: “[A]n unprecedented event in Cuba; never before had an opposition project achieved similar support, not even the Varela Project, which managed to gather 11,200 signatures.” Even though it was the second largest action of its kind since 1959, nothing has been published about it in independent Cuban media, which usually cover these types of citizen actions.

No national media outlet, neither official nor independent, covered ALEPSIG’s actions. We thought that by gaining visibility, some reporter would contact us, but that didn’t happen.

Many media outlets are permeated by gender ideology. They tend towards progressivism, and that editorial line distances them from reality.

Some opposition-oriented organizations approached us. Although we don’t shy away from political issues (everything boils down to politics, and the issues we addressed revolved around human rights), we preferred that the campaign not lose the focus with which it was created.

The signature collection campaign garnered support among non-believers. The doctor and dissident Alexander Pupo saw in his neighborhood the diligence, door-to-door, of a group of young people presenting the document. And he posted on his social media: “Let us learn, then, from these brave and determined young people who made a bad day for me a day of hope for many.” How was the campaign organized?

First, we created ALEPSIG representations in all the provinces and on the Isle of Youth. We held training workshops in each one, publicizing the parents’ demands and the objectives of the campaign.

Only after that, at another time, did we present the initiative to presidents of Christian organizations on the island.

ALEPSIG trained Christian leaders from various denominations, and we drafted and printed educational materials on the content of Resolution 16/2021 and its implications for our children. We held conferences on sexuality topics with Cuban and foreign specialists on our Telegram channel, where a large community of parents was formed.

We collected signatures to support the Declaration sent to the Minister of Education. As you mentioned, there were more than 140,000 in just one month, between June 1 and June 30, 2021, amidst the imposed social isolation and with all the provinces on the island closed due to COVID-19.

Why only in 30 days?

Because a complaint had already been filed with the Office of Citizen Services, the Declaration I mentioned to you, and the authorities technically have a deadline to respond. The signatures were important to demonstrate citizen support. We couldn’t miss that deadline.

Initially, we estimated that we would collect about 60,000 signatures, but we managed to unite many people from outside the Christian community. It was a genuine grassroots movement. God surprised us.

During the campaign, we drafted rules and guidelines for collecting the physical signatures, making sure to respect the health regulations (it wouldn’t have been wise to put ourselves at risk by violating them). On a document designed for this purpose, each person would write their name, last name, and identification number in their own handwriting, and then sign it.

Then we contacted Christian leaders who allowed us to use their organizational platform at the national level so that the information would reach every corner of the country as quickly as possible. The Assemblies of God, for example, helped us in this regard.

All the signatures were processed in a single province. A thorough review of each sheet was carried out, and any signatures that did not meet the collection requirements were invalidated.

One day we will reveal in more detail the methods used to get the signature sheets to a single location. I’ll only say that it involved a large network of fathers and brothers in faith with ALEPSIG who smuggled the documents using interprovincial ambulance services.

In an office, we set up several borrowed photocopiers and made copies of each sheet, numbering each one. We then made packages containing the signatures from each province and wrapped them so they could be disinfected with chlorine, as required by the COVID-19 decontamination process.

We created a document, with a copy, so that when we delivered the signatures to the authorities, there would be proof of delivery. And this last part was the only thing that couldn’t be completed. The Minister refused to receive them.

Undoubtedly, on November 29, 2021, when you took the two boxes of signatures to the Ministry of Education, marked a milestone for the campaign. Did you send the material to other entities?

We wrote eight emails to the Minister, the letter with the signatures to the MINED’s Citizen Attention Office, and others to the Provincial Education Directorate in 11 territories.

We sent three emails to the ANPP through its Citizen Attention Office, and to Miguel Díaz-Canel through the Office of the President of the Republic; two to UNICEF Cuba, through its representative on the island, Mr. Brandao Co, and two communications to UNESCO Cuba, for Saadia Sánchez, director and representative of the Multi-Country Office for the Caribbean and Officer in charge of the Regional Culture Office for Latin America and the Caribbean.

None of these institutions responded.

You mentioned it at the beginning, but did ALEPSIG follow “mandates” from any organization abroad or any particular church?

No. We have stated this in every possible forum. The campaign did not obey mandates from any organization, yet the Cuban authorities issued false accusations.

They accused us of being paid by “enemies of the Revolution,” that we were playing into their hands, that we were inciting people to commit crimes. A tiresome discourse. The objective of the campaign was to repeal Resolution 16/2021 and confront the new Family Code, a legal norm that would pave the way for said Resolution.

At the beginning of the Revolution, the Adventist preacher Humberto Noble Alexander was imprisoned. During the 22 years he spent locked up in La Cabaña castle, he witnessed Christian unity in the face of socialist sadism. “We came together to find strength. The labels of Seventh-day Adventist, Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian didn’t matter in prison. The church of Christ had to be united, and we were one, there, in the most shameful state of a communist prison,” he wrote. Did you see that same spirit surrounding the campaign?

The campaign never had a confessional character.

Training sessions were held on various topics related to sexuality and parenting. Psychologists, doctors, and educators participated. The campaign was a civil society initiative; the church is part of it, but it wasn’t only Christians who were involved. There were believers and non-believers.

When we collected signatures, most denominations supported the process, and we had teachers who went to the collection points and asked for forms because all the parents of their students wanted to sign. There are testimonies of military personnel who, after being given rides by cars carrying signature sheets, asked for the opportunity to sign. There were also denominations that initially collected signatures but, in the end, we believe out of fear, did not submit them. We believe there could have been thousands more signatures.

There were gay couples who signed, showing their disapproval of the gender ideology. They even confessed that they didn’t need marriage to be together. We don’t hate homosexuals, or anyone else. We offer love, we believe in a God of Love, we embrace these people as Christ embraced them.

We pray for them so that every bond of ungodliness and sin may be broken, and that they may see the light of Christ, and that it may shine in their hearts and they may be saved. We are compassionate; we understand the spiritual struggle they experience every day; they are human beings. God loves them and gave his only begotten Son so that all who believe in Him may not perish but have eternal life.

Between 2018 and 2022, the conservative sector proved, statistically and factually, to be the most dynamic and mobilizing force within Cuban civil society. How do you see this?

We believe that one of the campaign’s achievements was awakening Cuban society regarding these issues of children’s sex education and the preferential right of parents to choose what education their children receive.

This leadership has strengthened the conservative sector, giving it a voice and demands that no one can silence. Although state institutions don’t like the word “pressure,” that civic pressure works.

With the arrival of social media, Cubans shifted the way they channeled their discontent from the anemic balance and accountability meetings to digital spaces, which have greater reach, speed, etc. If the media doesn’t listen, there are social networks.

The fact that state television gave a platform to a conservative leader like Bárbaro Abel Marrero, to present arguments from silenced voices, was possible thanks to pressure from civil society.

“The danger we see is that the State is supplanting the role of parents in family education, with an imposed education,” he said in an interview. Could you elaborate on that idea?

We must accept that the Cuban family, for many years, had a somewhat naive and, to be frank, also forced behavior. The complete education of our children was in the hands of the State. We normalized the fact that, in order for us to dedicate ourselves to our jobs, they ended up in boarding schools, even forced into child labor.

The generations born after ‘59 didn’t ask many questions about the subjects taught in school curricula at different educational levels. That was the teacher’s or the Ministry of Education’s job.

The State had supplanted the role of parents in family education. And now it not only wants to teach the child mathematics or Spanish, but it seeks to confuse them, to the point of being able to tell that child that they are not who their parents say they are. This is abominable.

Subtly, elements were injected that challenged education in the home, contrary to family and Christian morality; the designers of “improvements” to the curriculum align themselves with other interests, completely unconnected to what is truly inclusive and diverse.

It is an idea that reinforces totalitarianism, that wants to take away parents’ authority over their children.

Our children have always been and will continue to be subjects of rights, and therefore objects of our care. No one has to come and supplant the function of the family. The family is the fundamental cell of society. In this environment, all the fundamental processes take place that allow the child to internalize the best values.

ALEPSIG contributed to this awakening, and we will continue to expand our horizons.

As citizens who live together on our beloved island, we are apprehensive about the laws that are being passed today and those that are being proposed. There is a very sad situation in our nation; the opinion of the vast majority is not taken into account, changes are proposed, and the political authorities, the drafters, and legal experts ignore the will of the people. The opinion and feelings of a people are being locked behind bars.

On September 25, 2022, the Castro regime held a “referendum” on the Family Code. According to official figures (to be treated with caution), only 3,936,790 ballots were cast in favor. Meanwhile, out of a total electorate of 8,447,467, almost 26% did not go to the polls. Of those who did vote, 359,081 cast invalid ballots. 1,950,090 voted against. In short, 4,505,512 Cubans eligible to vote (53.33% of the electorate) rejected the Code or did not participate in the final step associated with approving it. The Code, which imposed gender ideology, is the most unpopular state policy in six decades; the “I Won’t Vote” and “I Vote No” movements, promoted by conservatives, prevailed.

The institutions of family and marriage are not creations of the State; they existed before the emergence of states. Cubans cannot enact laws to destroy them; they must preserve them.

Of course, there is a well-crafted discourse that attempts to confuse a small segment of the population.

Today, no family can claim that there haven’t been opportunities to see and learn what is right and to reject the rotten ideas they want to feed us. ALEPSIG was the means to clarify and understand the problems that these corrupt laws entail.