Cubans March Against Homophobia

Hundreds of gay and lesbian activists, some dressed in drag and others sporting multicolored flags representing sexual diversity, marched and danced through the streets of Havana on Saturday along with the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro as part of a celebration aimed at eliminating homophobia around the world.

Some of the marchers played drums and others walked on stilts as they made their way down a wide avenue in the capital's hip Vedado neighborhood, where they have held a series of debates and workshops ahead of the May 17 celebration of the International Day Against Homophobia, which participants say marks the day in 1990 when the World Health Organization stopped listing homosexuality as a mental illness.

"We have made progress, but we need to make more progress," said Mariela Castro, a campaigner for gay rights on the island and the leader of Cuba's National Sexual Education Center. She is also the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro.

Cuba has come a long way in accepting homosexuality. In the 1960s, shortly after the revolution, homosexuals were fired from state jobs and many were imprisoned or sent to work camps. Others fled into exile.

But that began to change in the 1980s, in large part to the work of Mariela Castro's center. Recently, the government has even agreed to include sex change operations for transsexuals under its free national health system, another project championed by the center.

The workshops and debates held Saturday dealt with issues such as adoption by gay and lesbian couples and whether to legalize gay marriages, a step Mariela Castro has been pushing for years, so far without success. The week of celebrations culminates Monday.

Cuba Performing State-Sponsored Sex Change Surgery

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.

Huge Crowd Fills Havana Square for Peace Concert

Hundreds of thousands of people filled Havana's Revolution Square for a "peace" concert on Sunday in which Colombian singer Juanes and other musicians sought to bridge the political divide that has separated Cubans for 50 years.

The concert was shown live on international television, including to viewers in Miami, the heart of the Cuban exile community and center of opposition to Cuba's communist-led government.

A small group of exiles, who say Juanes legitimized a government that denies its people basic human rights, staged a protest in Miami's Little Havana against the concert.

Juanes, who organized his "Peace Without Borders" concert in conjunction with the Cuban government, sang "it's time to change" in a song and told the audience "the important thing is to swap hate for love."

He had insisted the show was not political, but raised eyebrows at the end of the concert when he shouted "one Cuban family" for Cuban unity and "Cuba libre," words that have been a rallying cry in the exile community for years.

They prompted immediate speculation on Spanish-language television in Miami, but drew no response from the Cuban government.

Juanes, a 17-time Latin Grammy winner who lives in Miami, was joined on stage by 14 artists from six countries, among them Olga Tanon of the U.S. territory Puerto Rico, Miguel Bose of Spain and Jovanotti of Italy. Cuban salsa kings Los Van Van closed it out.

The huge crowd in attendance, which Juanes said numbered more than 1 million, danced and swayed under a blistering sun that caused many to faint during the five-hour event.

Opened the Door

Juanes has said he organized the concert because he believes U.S. President Barack Obama has "opened the door" to change by easing the 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo and taking other steps to improve U.S.-Cuba relations.

In an interview aired Sunday by Spanish-language network Univision, Obama downplayed the concert's importance, saying "I certainly don't think it hurts U.S.-Cuban relations ... (but) I wouldn't overstate the degree that it helps."

He said he would like to see Cuban leaders respond to his overture by moving away "from some of the anti-democratic practices of the past."

Cuba's government last week chided Obama for not doing more to completely end the U.S. sanctions on Cuba.

In the concert crowd, Hector Pena, who works in tourism, called the show "a success," but shared Obama's skepticism about its ability to change long-bitter U.S.-Cuba relations.

"With or without Juanes, Cuba and the United States are two big noses that will never be able to kiss," he said.

In Miami, where many Cubans fled after Fidel Castro took power in a 1959 revolution and steered Cuba toward communism, a small anti-Castro group called Mambisa Watch staged a protest in August by crushing Juanes CDs and did the same thing on Sunday using a small steamroller.

A rival group across the street, Little Havana's Calle Ocho, shouted "Viva Juanes," scuffles broke out and police had to intervene.

In a nearby Calle Ocho park where elderly exiles gather to play dominoes, several spoke out against the concert.

"There has been a lot of blood spilled in Cuba and people executed by firing squad. He (Juanes) is singing over dead bodies," said Hernan Gonzalez, 77, who said he spent six years in a Cuban jail for opposing Fidel Castro in the 1960s.

Cuban Culture Minister Abel Prieto condemned the Miami protests, telling reporters on Friday the concert was "a huge blow ... against that vulgar form of fascism practiced over there" in Miami.

A number of Cuban dissidents supported the concert, even though they say the government was using it to project an image of tolerance that does not exist.

One of Cuba's leading anti-government dissidents, Martha Beatriz Roque, told Univision on Sunday that Cuban state security police had warned a number of dissidents and other individuals to stay away from Revolution Square.

"Apart from his music, he (Juanes) brought to Cuba a wave of harassment against some people," she said.

Hollywood Stars Visit Havana

Hollywood came to Havana on Thursday as Cuban writers and artists gave an award to Benicio del Toro, star of the 2008 movie "Che," in a ceremony attended by fellow actors Bill Murray, Robert Duvall and James Caan.

Murray stole the show when he improvised a version of the song "As Time Goes By," then jokingly passed around a hat, asking for money.

Their presence lent a bit of Hollywood glitz to warming U.S.-Cuba relations, and may have been the precursor for the making of a film in Cuba.

A spokesman for the group said del Toro was in town for the award, but that Murray, Duvall and Caan were working on a "research project.

When asked if he and his pals might make a movie on the communist-led island, del Toro told reporters: "That depends on the governments, on the American government."

Because of the long-standing U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, Americans have been forbidden, with some exceptions, from visiting the island or doing most business there.

Hollywood stars such as Robert Redford, Arnold Schwarzenegger and director Steven Spielberg have come to Cuba in the past but cultural exchanges slowed due to restrictions imposed by former U.S. President George W. Bush.

The group's spokesman said they were traveling under a license granted by the U.S. Treasury Department.

U.S. President Barack Obama offered earlier this year to "recast" relations with Cuba, which have been sour since the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in power.

Obama has lifted travel restrictions for Cuban Americans and restarted immigration talks with Cuba that were suspended under Bush.

Last week, the United States said a Bush-era news ticker on the U.S. Interests Section building in Havana, which the Cuban government viewed as an affront, had been turned off.

Puerto Rican-born del Toro won acclaim here last year for his portrayal of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, an Argentine who fought alongside Castro in the Cuban revolution, in the title role of the two-part biopic "Che," directed by American Steven Soderbergh.

The International Tomas Gutierrez Alea Prize, named for the late Cuban director who made the 1994 film "Strawberry and Chocolate," "makes me feel small and proud at the same time," del Toro said. "It's an honor to win this prize."

Raul Castro’s Daughter Leads Rally in Cuba

Mariela Castro, the daughter of Cuba’s President Raul Castro, led thousands of citizens in a rally on Saturday to promote LGBT rights.

Mariela, who is the director of the Cuban Sex Education Center, kicked off a program of events promoting respect and tolerance of Cuba’s LGBT community during a carnival-style festival held in central Havana.

Castro has stated she wants, “all Cuban people to participate so that the revolution can be deeper and include all the needs of the human being.”