Number of people incarcerated per 10,000 of population as of April 2016:

USA...693

Cuba...510

As for gay rights,as I have said before the comparator is similar counties,ie Jamaica or Dominican Republic (which tried to stop the appointment of a gay US ambassador..

According to the New York Times,Fidel's niece has been a tireless campaigner for gay rights...

"After the 2007 march, Ms. Castro, who is straight, began a public campaign to promote tolerance. She persuaded the government in recent years to offer state-paid gender reassignment surgery and hormone treatment for transgender people. Last year (2013), when the Assembly passed a labor code that protected gays and lesbians — but not transgender people — from discrimination in the workplace, Ms. Castro became the first lawmaker in Cuban history to cast a dissenting vote in protest. Her ultimate goal, she said, was codifying full equality under the law.

Gay Cubans say that discrimination remains a problem, particularly outside big cities. Still, last year, a woman in Caribién, a municipality east of Havana, became the country’s first transgender elected official. At the urging of Ms. Castro and gay bloggers, in 2010 Cuba began voting in favor of resolutions supporting gay rights at the United Nations, breaking ranks with allies in Africa and the Caribbean."

I don't shy away from the repressive aspects of Fidel's rule...I just find it ironic when people so uncritically swallow 50 years' ceaseless propaganda emanating from the US,particularly in the form of the Calle Ocho nutters,and fail to judge Cuba relative its comparators and in light of 50 years' unceasing hostility and economic pressure..

Edited by legaleagle (29 Nov 2016 9.42am)

Speaking as a "lefty" seeing other leftists support an oppressive dictator is just laughable.
People talk about the literacy rate but I don't really see the good in being literate if it doesn't enable you to be a free thinker, and i wonder what kind of medical care the gay men Castro threw in labor camps received. Would love to see how these people would react to any right wing dictator who improved health care and literacy rates if they did pesky little things like killing people

Speaking as a "lefty" seeing other leftists support an oppressive dictator is just laughable.
People talk about the literacy rate but I don't really see the good in being literate if it doesn't enable you to be a free thinker, and i wonder what kind of medical care the gay men Castro threw in labor camps received. Would love to see how these people would react to any right wing dictator who improved health care and literacy rates if they did pesky little things like killing people

It is normally listed as x per 100,000. I don't know the number, but that looks way off., but it is probably just a typo on his part. I just spotted that he fixed it.

Of course, even if it were true it ignores the fact that Cuba has imprisoned all of its citizens merely for having the misfortune of being born there, and excluded millions from the political process merely by dint of not being a communist. But other than that, he's comparing like with like...

Edited by NickinOX (29 Nov 2016 11.41am)

Are you sure you're a lefty SW16?

You seem like a free thinker to me!