Assotto Saint’s Haiti

Having seen, so many times during this AIDS crisis, Haitian doctors and community leaders deny the existence of homosexuality in Haiti; having heard constantly that the first afflicted male causes in Haiti were not homosexual, but alas, poor hustlers who were used by visiting homosexual American tourists who infected them and thus introduced the disease into the country; having felt outrage at the many excuses, lies, denials, and apologies — I am duty-bound to come out and speak for the thousands of Haitians like me, gay and not hustlers, who, for one reason or another, struggle with silence and anonymity yet don’t view ourselves as victims. Self pity isn’t part of my vocabulary. Haunted by the future, I’m desperate to bear witness and settle accounts. These are trying times. These are times of need.

Yves Lubin aka Assotto Saint (2 October 1957 – 29 June 1994), from “Haiti: A Memory Journey,” Spells of a Voodoo Doll (1996)