by Rex Wockner
Cuba's culture minister, Abel Prieto, has come out in support of same-sex marriage, the Miami Herald reported Feb. 6.
"I think that marriage between lesbians, between homosexuals can be perfectly approved and that in Cuba that wouldn't cause an earthquake or anything like that," Prieto, who is a member of the Politburo, told reporters after a screening of a new documentary about folk singer Silvio Rodriguez.
Prieto, 57, also is a member of the Council of State, Cuba's governing body. The Herald noted that he is the only top government official with "shoulder-length hair."
Prieto's statement is one of several pro-gay developments in Cuba in the past year.
In November, Mariela Castro Espin, director of National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX), said her dad, Raul Castro, supports letting open gays serve in the military. Raul Castro is leading Cuba during his brother Fidel's lengthy illness.
Castro Espin also has said the island will begin offering sex-change operations.
"There are 27 transsexuals waiting for the operation [and] the medical team is being trained," she told the Buenos Aires newspaper Clarin three months ago. "As soon as it's ready … they will start to operate."
In December, two Havana lesbians were symbolically married in CENESEX's courtyard. Monica, 19, and Elizabeth, 28, tied the knot before 60 friends and supporters in the first-ever same-sex union to receive support from a government agency.
The ceremony was filmed by students from the Cuban Higher Institute of Art.
And last July, the Roman Catholic vicar general of Havana, Monsignor Carlos Manuel de Cespedes Garcia-Menocal, wrote that he supports "stable same-sex relationships" being "protected by civil laws."
"Contemporary Western society is no longer the same as that which arrived at present clarifications concerning marriage," Cespedes said.
