Contributed by Cristen

Der Spiegel recently published an interview with Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuban president Raul Castro and Fidel Castro’s niece. In addition to her notable paterfamilias, Castro has also become a well known champion for gay rights in Cuba. As director of Cuba’s National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX), Castro lobbied the National Assembly to adopt a gay rights bill. Cuba has been known for fierce homophobic policies, subjecting gays and lesbians to “reeducation camps” and violence at times. Even last year, groups of young homosexuals were arrested at different times based solely on their sexuality. That included the imprisonment of student Mario José Delgado Gonzáles, who was taken into custody for organizing the Mr. Gay Havana pageant, and even following his release, Gonzáles was banned from returning to university.

According to a 2008 BBC report, Mariela Castro’s proposed bill would’ve been one of the most liberal gay rights policies in Latin America, and included provisions to “recognize same-sex unions, along with inheritance rights. It would also give transsexuals the right to free sex-change operations and allow them to switch the gender on their ID cards, with or without surgery.”

Castro later withdrew the bill, but she noted that the opposition came from the Catholic Church and certain government factions – not her father, which is interesting. In explaining her reasons for withdrawing the bill, Castro told Der Spiegel:

(Cuban President Raul Castro) understood it and supported it. But there are people in his environment and in some governing bodies of the church who cannot understand it. We continue to fight. Where there are people there are sexual differences and homosexuality, even in the Communist Party. The opponents must recognize that our policy also benefits many party members by allowing them to have political careers.

She also called out the United Nations for not taking a more proactive stance on supporting gay rights as well:

For me, sexual identity and orientation is a human right, which should also be accepted by the United Nations. Of course, innovations in this area provoke contradictions, especially in a society like ours, which has so many revolutionary processes.

Cuba still has a way to go toward realizing Castro’s vision of equal rights for homosexuals. But for a country fraught with social problems whose living standards are far below those in the U.S., Cuba has managed to take more proactive steps toward legalizing same sex marriage than its northern neighbor. Today, the New York Times even noted that Argentina’s recent passage of same sex marriage legislation marks the ninth Latin American country to do so. Meantime, in the United States, a mere five states allow it. Maybe once Mariela Castro pushes equal rights through in Cuba, she can head our way.

Click here for the full Interview

Tags: cuba, gay rights, mariela castro, same-sex marriage