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Loading ...Cuba performing state-sponsored sex change surgery
01.20.2010 10:55am EST
(Havana) Cuba has begun performing state-sponsored sex-change operations after the government lifted a longtime ban on the procedure in 2007, President Raul Castro’s daughter said Tuesday.
A sexologist and gay-rights advocate, Mariela Castro runs the Center for Sex Education, which prepares transsexuals for sex-change operations and identifies Cubans it deems ready for the procedure.Speaking to reporters during the fifth Cuban Conference on Sexual Education, Orientation and Therapy, Castro said surgeries began in 2008 but would not specify exactly how many have been performed or how much they cost.
She said only that Cuban doctors working with Belgian counterparts have gotten to “less than half” of the 30 islanders approved to undergo the procedure.
Cuba identified 122 people who wanted to have sex changes in 1979 and performed the first successful operation nine years later, but subsequent sex-change procedures were prohibited, Castro added.
The operations are covered by Cuba’s universal health care system, even though some have protested the decision to allow them – either because of general opposition to the procedure or due to its high costs for a developing country with economic problems.
“We schedule a certain number per year based on economic circumstances,” Castro said, adding that, because of budget constraints, sex changes are not offered to foreigners who travel to Cuba for medical care.
Castro also said Tuesday that she plans to prepare a letter to the leadership of Cuba’s Communist Party urging authorities to draft a measure directing that homosexuals not be barred from joining the party.
Such a decree would be similar to one approved in the 1990s expressly allowing Cubans of all religious affiliations to join.
Gays are not technically banned from the Communist Party, but Castro said such a measure would help better cement their role in politics.
Castro also said her center will continue to push the single-party government to rewrite civil codes and recognize same-sex unions, though not full gay marriage.
However, she said the group has stopped pushing for same-sex couples to be allowed to adopt children, saying Cuba’s legal code provides no means for such a move.
In a previous column I called America a communist country. I apologize to every oppressive communist country as it was an insult to them.
After reading this?
The commie countries are even ahead of us in terms of gay rights.
Why isn’t America embarrassed by this?
Hang your pathetic empty heads you zealots.
America, the land of no freedom and the home of the fundies.
See what happens when you allow religion to take control?
America IS a theocracy, not a democracy.
Our constitution is meaningless to the “God must rule” crowd.
How does this make us ANY better than the Arab world?
I have to win the powerball, I’m moving to Norway.
Why is this on gay news site? Gender identity is a completely different characteristic than sexual orientation.
lfivepoints69: LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender. That is one reason why this story is on the site. Another reason, if you had continued on and ready the whole story it would have become apparent to you, is that Mariela Castro talks about Gays and Gay rights as well.
Strange as it may seem, Cuba seems to be more advanced that the Good Ole’ United States when it comes to civil rights and universal health care!
lfivepoints69: If you are not intelligent enough to see that gender identity as well as sexual orientation are a continuum and not a linear expression, you really don’t understand why you are here.
Are they really the enemy, or is the enemy amongst us.
They have a failed economic system. But they do have a heart in some ways.
And if we would set up normal relations after 40+ years – the soviet union is gone- they’d live a lot better, as would we.
But we have the problem of all those we took in from Cuba, who, never willing to forget the revolution and look forward, are a problem in our country re normalizing relations.
lfivepoints69: Transphobic much? lgbT man T T T T T. On a basic community level they are part of our community. If you really need a technical answer of why they are part of our community aside from the fact that homophobic attacks are almost always transphobic attacks in disguise. Have you ever known a butch gay man, or a particularly fem lesbian? Have you ever noticed how much less they get harassed than the femme gay boy and the butch lesbian. I won’t pretend that anyone homosexual is safe from harassment, but statistically “obvious” ones get it worse. And the old though thankfully less used excuse for why our rights aren’t the same as African American rights is we can hide it. Well thank you very much Mr lfivepoints69 I don’t think I should have to, and I have seen the evidence that homophobia is transphobia, so they are quite welcome at my alphabet soup party. I think it’s sad they aren’t welcome at yours.
@Brian Nallick I agree with you completely. I kind of laughed when I read the headline. I think the news is great, don’t get me wrong, but I laughed because this is such a far blow to the ploddingly slow progression of LGBT equality in the US. This from such a fundamentally frowned upon nation “full of teh reds takin’ are jawwbs!” Cuba isn’t perfect in regards to equal rights, but this kind of news really shows the real sense of RESPECT. that the country has for the LGBT community. It stems far beyond the tolerance of our right to exist, (oh thank you for that, I’m honored- srsly) to a sense of real regard of all citizens as real people.
I also find it true that the US is extremely flawed democratically and has strayed from what a democratic nation really is.