Cuba Gives Consent For Free Sex Change Operations

Cubans can now freely undergo sex change operations, as the latest policy change in the country since President Raul Castro took office in February, calls for officially authorized sex-change treatment for transsexuals.

The director of Cuba’s sex education centre and the president’s daughter Mariela Castro has been pushing the government to officially permit sex change operations for several years.

The health ministry has finally obliged and 28 people in the country, who seek to get their sex changed, will be given the treatment for no cost at all.

A specialist at the National Center for Sex Education, who requested anonymity, said the Public Health Ministry approved the surgery this week. The health care system of the country of 11 million will perform it free of charge.

Mariela Castro has also requested for the state to recognize same sex unions and inheritance rights. If she succeeds in getting her request granted, Cuba will become the country with most liberal gay rights in Latin America.

A sex change operation took place in Cuba in 1988 but much opposition to it forced the health ministry to cancel the program, Mariela Castro said last month.

But after new reforms, a Cuban team has been training with Belgian surgeons to prepare for the operations.

President Raul Castro has implemented various policy changes in Cuba, since he succeeded his elder brother, Fidel. He is trying to bring about the modernization of the state-run economy.

He has lifted the bans that kept most Cubans from owning mobile phones, computers, DVD players in their own names and renting hotel rooms and cars. Also, he has raised the pensions and salaries for some state employees.