LGBT rights in Cuba visibility and gender transgressions themselves constituted a central part of the problem identified by the revolution. Even during the severest period of enforcement, Marvin Leiner reminds us, private homosexual expression was never the main target. Rather, "... the major concern, as it had always been, was with the public display of homosexuality." Many of the progressive LGBT persons who remained in Cuba became involved in counter-revolutionary activities, independently or through encouragement of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and were jailed. The 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, commando attacks from Florida bases, and internal CIA-sponsored subversion created in Cuba an increased
Women's rights in Cuba set out to help with the country's history of rates of illiteracy. About a quarter of the population of Cuba was illiterate when Fidel Castro took power and over half were women. By 1961, nearly the entire country was literate, primarily in thanks to volunteers (of which around 56% were young women) going to rural areas to teach literacy. As of 2011, women in Cuba made up more than 80% of university students and around 68% of university graduates. Comparatively, women made up about 57% of undergraduates in the United States in 2008. Women in Cuba also make up about