Cuba to provide free sex-change (covered by Cuba's national health care system)

[Mika]

Source: BBC

Cuba to provide free sex-change
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7441448.stm

Cuba has authorised sex-change operations and will offer them free to qualifying citizens, officials say.

The move is the latest in a series of policy changes implemented by President Raul Castro since he succeeded his elder brother, Fidel, in February.

Raul Castro's daughter, who heads the National Centre for Sex Education, spearheaded the changes in a country renowned for sexual conservatism.

So far 28 transsexuals in the country have requested the operation.

Vibrant and discreet

Last month, for only the second time, the Cuban authorities joined events to marking International Day against Homophobia.

Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela, has also pushed for the state to recognise same sex unions and inheritance rights.

If adopted the reforms would give Cuba the most liberal gay rights in Latin America, says the BBC's Michael Voss in Havana.

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Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7441448.stm

[Mika]

1. Cuba joins Brazil in offering free sex-change operations

Cuba joins Brazil in offering free sex-change operations
http://www.metroweekly.com/gauge/last_word/2008/06/cuba-joins-brazil-in-offering.html

"It was just approved. The operations will begin to be carried out as soon as the Cuban medical team is ready to start.... We see transsexualism as a special reality that requires a special response from society.... We have also presented the arguments for a decree law on gender identity that would legally establish that a sex reassignment operation is not necessary for obtaining a change of identity, in the case of diagnosed transsexuals. That would basically amount to social recognition of their identity"

Mariela Castro, head of the National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX) and daughter of President Castro, speaking on the recent approval to offer gender reassignment as part of the nation's health care system. Mariela Castro has become a leading pro-GLBT voice and policy maker on the island nation. (IPSnews.net)

"When you pay your taxes, nobody asks you which is your sexual option. Why discriminate against you when you freely choose what to do with your body?"

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in remarks at the first ''National Conference of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Transexuals.''

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[roody]

2. Those damn commies.

[Xenotime]

3. This is an example of what quality healtcare can provide.

[Zachstar]

8. Huh?

[Judi Lynn]

9. Absolutely! Their remarkable system is well known everywhere, with one odd exception. n/t

[Schema Thing]

4. Oh geez, what a dilemma

I'm physically incapable of turning down a bargain. Otoh, if I take this one, I'd be physically incapable of doing some other things I really love.

:dilemma:

[Unvanguard]

5. Doesn't Iran do something similar? n/t

[VP505]

6. LOL, now Pat Robertson/Phelps and their minions will be

DEMANDING Booo$h bomb Cuba,********can't have all that sex changing going on that close to God's U.S.of A.:sarcasm:

[Vinca]

7. It's astonishing a tiny island, 90 miles off our shores, has a healthcare

delivery system that puts this country to shame. Do U.S. insurance companies even cover these procedures (assuming you're lucky enough to have any coverage at all)?

[Mika]

10. No. In the USA you are on your own. The ownership society.

Cubans, by and large, stand together - no matter what. This is exemplified in their world class social infrastructures and safety networks.

Cubans wanted these things and they have formed government that enables them to do so, not at odds with their government but as part of it.



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[Judi Lynn]

11. People marvel at their ability to mobilize quickly during hurricanes, getting all the people

to higher ground in time to secure even livestock, and their pets, with unbelievably low losses. They've been commended by the U.N. and other world organizations on their amazingly quick reaction time, and spirit of cooperation in their national emergencies.

Bet that's one reason they were able to repel the invaders from Florida, and elsewhere, in the Bay of Pigs, too!

[undeterred]

12. And here in the USA a diabetic can't even get insulin

without hanging around an emergency room.

[UTUSN]

13. Mika & Judi, I love you, I really REALLY do (believe it or not)

and I really really try to show RESPECT for you two FOR YOUR IDEALISM (or whatever it is, your love for Latinos or WHATEVER)...

So this (my respect for you) translates into my not barging into Huguito-love-threads, AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. I usually try to post into ANTI-Huguito threads.


ANYWAY, this particular thread has had its fair exposure, so NOW I say:


**********WHAT, is Raulito trying to maximize his chances for a DATE ON A SATURDAY NIGHT?!1


Hookay. That's what I had to say. Let your outrage RIP!!!!!!!1

[Judi Lynn]

14. Cuba-related posting activity! "Cuba's urban farming program a stunning success"

Cuba's urban farming program a stunning success
Posted on Sun, Jun. 08, 2008

By NIKO PRICE
Associated Press Writer

HAVANA -- For Miladis Bouza, the global food crisis arrived two decades ago. Now, her efforts to climb out of it could serve as a model for people around the world struggling to feed their families.

Bouza was a research biologist, living a solidly middle-class existence, when the collapse of the Soviet Union - and the halt of its subsidized food shipments to Cuba - effectively cut her government salary to $3 a month. Suddenly, a trip to the grocery store was out of reach.

So she quit her job, and under a program championed by then-Defense Minister Raul Castro, asked the government for the right to farm an overgrown, half-acre lot near her Havana home. Now, her husband tends rows of tomatoes, sweet potatoes and spinach, while Bouza, 48, sells the produce at a stall on a busy street.

Neighbors are happy with cheap vegetables fresh from the field. Bouza never lacks for fresh produce, and she pulls in between $100 to $250 a month - many times the average government salary of $19.

"All that money is mine," she said. "The only thing I have to buy is protein" - meat.

Cuba's urban farming program has been a stunning, and surprising, success. The farms, many of them on tiny plots like Bouza's, now supply much of Cuba's vegetables. They also provide 350,000 jobs nationwide with relatively high pay and have transformed eating habits in a nation accustomed to a less-than-ideal diet of rice and beans and canned goods from Eastern Europe.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/915/story/562727.html

(Sorry to pile on your Cuba thread, Mika. I hope it's semi-excusable to add this article on Cuba urban gardens from the Sunday Miami Herald.)