Over the past six weeks, Americans have learned quite a bit about Raúl Castro, who took over as head of the Cuban government in late July. One thing they haven't been told, however, is something millions of Cubans have long taken for granted: that little bro is gay.

It's not a new rumor by any means, but it has flamed up again in the wake of Fidel Castro's hospitalization for intestinal bleeding. News articles on exile websites about the hand over, which may prove temporary if Fidel ever recovers, are routinely accompanied by reader comments that refer to Raúl as el maricón, a Spanish derogatory term equivalent to "faggot." Some sites claim he is bisexual (he is, after all, married with four children) or a cross-dresser, while others name his alleged partners. Asked how widespread the belief is, a member of a Cuban exile family from Miami told Radar simply, "Everyone knows Raúl is gay."

The Western press has almost entirely ignored the rumor, aside from The Economist, which has mentioned in passing that Raúl is known as "la China," or "the Chinese girl." This, according to The Economist, is because he is "effeminate." In fact, it carries a clear implication of homosexuality, says Ann Louise Bardach, author of Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana," and an expert on the regime.

Bardach acknowledges that the rumor about Raúl is remarkably pervasive. It's not even particularly farfetched: Gay relationships are exceptionally common in Cuban culture, even among men who consider themselves straight, says Bardach. "It might be the gayest place on the planet outside of South Beach."

Still, she believes the whispers about Raúl have been "ultimately disproved," most convincingly by a CIA debrief of Castro's personal secretary, who defected to the U.S. in the early 1990s. Moreover, she notes, Raúl's daughter, Mariela Castro, is the country's leading advocate for gay, lesbian and transgendered rights. "If it were a touchy issue with your father, I don't think you'd be running the transgendered clinic," she says. Which, we suppose, is one way of looking at it.

Either way, the rumor has endured for years (Allen Ginsberg wrote about it in his journal, and Andy Warhol alluded to it in his 1965 film The Life of Juanita Castro), and it isn't likely to die anytime soon. If Fidel dies, however, "cruising the Castro" could take on a whole new meaning.