Comment 11 for bug 838381

I thought I would add the workaround I found which applies to Xubuntu 18.04 but possibly others:

To make the cursor keep blinking in GTK-based applications (which includes gnome-terminal, xfce4-terminal, gedit, pidgin and many others):

1. Open Settings Editor from the Settings menu.
2. Select the xsettings "channel" on the left side of the interface.
3. Click New.
4. The name of the property needs to be /Gtk/CursorBlinkTimeout
5. Set it to be an integer property.
6. Specify a very large number (but less than 2 billion).
7. Click Save

Here's hoping the GNOME group somehow ceases to exist in the near future.