Meli26, You're a bit heavy on the histrionics. 
On the gay oppression. Yes, indeed, as was widespread to varying degrees around the globe then.  He backed off starting in the mid 80s and into the 90s. Speaking of the mid 80s, by then about 25,000 Americans had died of Aids, mostly gay. Ronald Regan famously turned a blind eye to the crisis. 'Crisis, what crisis.', and The Band Played On. 

Prior to his gay 'enlightenment',  Castro gets a bit of reprieve in my book.  As mentioned in my original post, when you have a giant living next door ready to resort to just about any means to have their way with you, get some license to respond in kind. The Cuban gay population of the late 50s and early 60s was known to have a number of people helping the CIA( check out wiki).

Finally, I wonder if PET's  'The govt has no business in the bedroom's of the nation' statement  helped plant  that enlightenment seed in his friend. I hope so.