Comments by Rob Sequin: The original title is “LGBT Rights in Cuba, the United States and Beyond: Mariela Castro and Rea Carey in Conversation” but I think my title is a fair interpretation.

I find it interesting that New York taxpayers are paying to host the daughter of a Communist leader.

She may want human rights for gays and lesbians but her father isn’t doing much to respect human rights in Cuba.

So, I thought I’d change the title a bit so people really understand what will happen on May 29 at the New York PUBLIC library.

I am not opposed to the topic but I do have some reservations about the venue hosting her. This should be a privately funded event at a private location paid for with private funds and not funded by taxpayers.

Also, you’ll notice this line below: “Initial funding of the LGBT Initiative provided by Time Warner Inc”. I am curious to know if Time Warner is funding Ms. Castro in ANY way. If so, people AND shareholders should know about that too.

For the record, I do not support “sex reassignment surgery”.

LGBT Rights in Cuba, the United States and Beyond: Mariela Castro and Rea Carey in Conversation

Tuesday, May 29, 2012, 7 - 8:30 p.m.

Program Location: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Wachenheim Trustees Room

First come, first served - Seating is limited and will be first come first served.

Initial funding of the LGBT Initiative provided by Time Warner Inc.

In 2010 the Cuban government began providing sex reassignment surgery free of charge as part of their universal healthcare. This was the result of several years of work by the Cuban National Center for Sex Education under the leadership of Mariela Castro Espín, niece of Fidel Castro and daughter of current Cuban president Raúl Castro. The current developments in LGBT rights in Cuba are remarkable given the discrimination suffered by gays, lesbians, and transgender people in Cuba in the 20th century, as well as comparison with current LGBT movements in the U.S. and abroad.

Please join us on Tuesday May 29th at 7pm in the Trustees Room of the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building as Mariela Castro Espín and Rea Carey, Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, discuss the current international context of LGBT rights, including issues of sexual identity and orientation in contemporary Cuba.

Mariela Castro Espín is the director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX). She was President of the Cuban Society for the Multidisciplinary Study of Sexuality (SOCUMES) from 2000 to 2010. She is president of the Cuban Multidisciplinary Centre for the Study of Sexuality, president of the National Commission for Treatment of Disturbances of Gender Identity, member of the Direct Action Group for Preventing, Confronting, and Combatting AIDS, and an executive member of the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS). She is also the director of the journal Sexología y Sociedad, a magazine of Sexology edited by her own National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX). She is the author of 9 books, published in Cuba and abroad, among them Transexuality in Cuba (Havana, CENESEX Publishing House, 2008). In 2009 she was awarded with the Public Service Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS), and in 2012 she received the Eureka Award for Academic Excellence, given by the World Council of University Academy (COMAU). She is married with 3 children.