Fidel never inhibited LGBT rights, and most of the framework for making Cuba the most LGBT and trans-friendly nation was laid while he was still alive. He was openly very pro LGBT.

The controversy about this comes from the UMAP camps, which he explicitly stated was an incorrect policy, and a “great injustice” in his autobiography:

Fidel Castro visited one of the UMAP camps incognito to experience the treatment for himself. He was followed by 100 boys from the Young Communist League whose identity was also kept secret. In 1968, shortly after these visits, the camps closed.[8] Castro said, “They weren’t units of internment or punishment… However, after a visit I discovered the distortion in some places, of the original idea, because you can’t deny that there were prejudices against homosexuals. I personally started a review of this matter. Those units only lasted three years.”[19]

In his autobiography My Life, Fidel Castro criticized the machismo culture of Cuba and urged for the acceptance of homosexuality. He made several speeches to the public regarding discrimination against homosexuals.

In a 2010 interview with Mexican newspaper La Jornada, Castro called the persecution of homosexuals while he was in power “a great injustice, great injustice!” Taking responsibility for the persecution, he said, “If anyone is responsible, it’s me… We had so many and such terrible problems, problems of life or death. In those moments, I was not able to deal with that matter [of homosexuals]. I found myself immersed, principally, in the Crisis of October, in the war, in policy questions.” Castro personally said that the negative treatment of gays in Cuba arose out of the country’s pre-revolutionary attitudes toward homosexuality.[34]