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| Mariela Castro speaking at the rally in Havana |
By Associated Press, Fox News, May 12, 2012
The daughter of
Cuban President Raul Castro said during a rousing gay rights march Saturday
that her father advocated eliminating sexual discrimination, and reiterated her
own hope the country would soon legalize same sex marriage.
Mariela Castro, a
noted gay rights advocate and head of Cuba's National Center for Sex Education,
also repeated her praise for U.S. President Barack Obama's public remarks in
favor of same sex marriage, saying the American leader's words "have great
value because of the influence they might have" on others.
Still, she said
Obama needed to back his words with action. While the U.S. president voiced
support for same sex marriage, there were no plans in the U.S. to get behind
federal legislation to mandate states to recognize such unions.
Castro's comments
came during a colorful march by 400 advocates through the sweltering streets of
the capital. The event is linked to the International Day Against Homophobia on
May 17. Participants, including transvestites and transgender people, sang and
danced in a conga line.
Castro has
predicted for years that Cuba's parliament was on the verge of legalizing gay
marriage, but it has yet to happen. She said she hoped legislators would
finally follow through when they next meet in July.
Castro said her
father had voiced support for the measure privately several times, and
indicated he was working behind the scenes in support of a reform of the
island's family law.
"It is surely
part of his tactics and strategy; it is his style," she said. "I am
not going to pressure him to say things publically, because I am more
interested in concrete results."
In the early years
after Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, homosexuality was considered highly
suspect, along with other "alternative" forms of expression.
Many gays were
fired from government jobs, jailed, sent to work camps or left for exile. Fidel
Castro later apologized for the discrimination, saying his past views on
homosexuality were wrong, and a product of the times.
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