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Transgender? You May Want to Move to Cuba or Brazil

By pledging to pay for sex change operations, Brazil and Cuba make bold statements of support toward their transgender citizens.
An Advocate.com exclusive posted July 31, 2008
Transgender? You May Want to Move to Cuba or Brazil

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, president of Brazil

Like June 27, 1969, the date of the Stonewall riots, June 6, 2008 will be remembered as a turning point in LGBT history. That was the day the governments of Cuba and Brazil announced that they would be performing gender-reassignment surgery free of charge to qualified citizens.

Brazilian Heath Minister José Gomes Temporão made the announcement standing next to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at Brazil’s first National Conference of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites, and Transsexuals in Brasília.

The Brazilian measure stemmed from a lawsuit in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, where prosecutors argued that gender-reassignment surgery is covered by a constitutional clause that guarantees medical procedures as a basic right for all Brazilians.

Lula told reporters that the decision to approve the procedures was based in equality for all.

“Why discriminate when you freely choose what to do with your body?” Lula said.

Brazil has been known for its progressive social policies and liberal attitudes regarding sexuality, but in Cuba the government’s announcement that free sex-change operations would be available represents a radical shift.

Historically, transgender Cubans would risk being arrested if they were openly expressing themselves in public. Clandestine drag parties were known to be raided by government officials. Even today, Cuba’s gay scene continues to thrive mostly underground.

However, this year the country’s National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX), led by Mariela Castro Espin, daughter of ruler Raul Castro, began a government-supported campaign for LGBT tolerance that included a national day against homophobia in May and a government-sponsored Gay Pride beach party on June 14.

National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX), led by Mariela Castro Espin (Getty) x395 | Advocate.com
Above: Mariela Castro Espin

“We see transsexualism as a special reality that requires a special response from society,” Castro told reporters soon after the June 6 announcement.

In 1988 the first and only Cuban sex change operation was performed. Today, 28 Cubans have been diagnosed by the government as transsexual, and 19 of them want to have gender-reassignment surgery. Now it looks as if they'll get their wish.

Rodriguez is a Miami-based writer and editor.

Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

  • Name: Ray
    Date posted: 2008-08-05 7:02 PM
    Hometown: North Hollywood

    Comment:

    We are talking about the same Cuba who for decades placed gay men and woman in labor camps for "social undesirables," submitting them to electroshock treatment and beatings, are we not? We are talking about the same Cuba who rounded up persons with HIV and forcibly quarantined them far from their family and friends, are we not? We are talking about the same Cuba who this year prohibited the Gay Pride festivities (once again) without any explanation, are we not? We are talking about the same Cuba where freedom of expression, by ANY CITIZEN is denied them by the government, are we not? So now dictator Raul Castro wants to score propaganda points by offering free gender-reassingment surgery. How nice. And, of course, he is offered a perfect platform by the naive and gullible citizens, and PUBLICATIONS, of countries who have never lived through the kind of despotism imposed on Cuba. I, however, happen to be a gay man born in Cuba, and no one can pull the wool over my eyes.


  • Name: Henry Charles
    Date posted: 2008-08-05 2:13 AM
    Hometown: New York

    Comment:

    Amazing: Cuba under Raul Castro is becoming more liberal then the USA. It just shows you how totally terrible the republicans in America have become. The leadership should be exiled. Along with their gang of haters to some uninhabited Island named 'Warland' And we can all gamble on how long it will be before they decide to split into groups, hate each other, and have their own mini-Iraq wars. It would show the world what these monsters really are all about. And isn't it time to have diplomatic relations with Cuba? Doesn't our govt have any gonads? Notice how we have diplomatic relations with Vietnam, trade with them, and they are not on the map as an enemy at all.


  • Name: Kimberly Burgess
    Date posted: 2008-08-03 2:12 AM
    Hometown: Las Vegas, NV

    Comment:

    Bless Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Mariela Castro Espin for their compassion and sensitivity to a very real segment of the population. May the USA someday be as mature and fair to all of its citizens. I am proud to live in the same world as these two leaders, and glad that soon Bush will be a fading memory.


  • Name: Dinei
    Date posted: 2008-08-01 3:35 PM
    Hometown: San Francisco

    Comment:

    I live in the U.S. since 1997 and will become an U.S. Citizen in 2010. but I'm ao proud to be a Brazilian gay man right now. This is a very important move forward for LGBT in Brazil. Left alone that Lula, the president of Brazil, attended the Annual LGBT Conference. Seeing him hold the LGBT flap with joy and respect makes me really proud. I hope someday I see an American hold the LGBT flag in the same manner. Abracos. Dinei


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