Cuba has authorized
Sex-Change Operations for Transsexual citizens.
KBOO’s Jacob Anderson-Minshall has more on the
story.
The Associated Press reported Monday that Cuba has
official authorized gender-reassignment operations and will offer them free to
qualifying citizens.
The move—one of the latest
in a series of changes implemented by President Raul Castro since he succeeded
his elder brother, Fidel—puts Cuba above any US state in providing affordable
access to gender reassignment surgery.
When Raul Castro took over
in February, his daughter, Mariela, who heads Cuba's National Center for Sex
Education, called for LGBT civil rights and legalization of gender reassignment
surgery.
A resolution approving the
surgery, signed by Cuba’s Health Minister, Jose Ramon Balaguer, was posted on
the Internet over the weekend. The
procedure would be available to authorized Cubans free of charge, as part of
the country's health-care system.
The island nation’s sex
education center reported previously that 28 transsexual Cubans have asked to
undergo gender reassignment and that Cuban doctors have been trained with
physicians from Belgium to prepare for the procedures, which will take place at
a soon to be established clinic for transsexual health. it is not clear when it the operations may begin.
Cuba carried out a
successful gender-reassignment operation in 1988, but future surgeries were
canceled when it sparked a negative public outcry.
- KBOO