Cuba performing state-sponsored sex change surgery

[Butterfly]

Cuba performing state-sponsored sex change surgery
Taiwan News
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press
2010-01-20 03:42 AM


http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1159821&lang=eng_news


Cuba has begun performing state-sponsored sex-change operations after the government lifted a longtime ban on the procedure in 2007, President Raul Castro's daughter said Tuesday.

A sexologist and gay-rights advocate, Mariela Castro runs the Center for Sex Education, which prepares transsexuals for sex-change operations and identifies Cubans it deems ready for the procedure.

Speaking to reporters during the fifth Cuban Conference on Sexual Education, Orientation and Therapy, Castro said surgeries began in 2008 but would not specify exactly how many have been performed or how much they cost.

She said only that Cuban doctors working with Belgian counterparts have gotten to "less than half" of the 30 islanders approved to undergo the procedure.

[Britney_413]

and identifies Cubans it deems ready for the procedure.

While it is great that Cuba is now doing this for its citizens I couldn't help but notice how much the section quoted above stood out. If you live in Cuba and you identify as a transsexual who would like SRS, it is not you who decides if you receive it or not, the government does. At least this is a step in the right direction, though.

[cynthialee]

Kinda sad that a place like Cuba can be more enlightened than more 'enlightened' nations when it comes too the needs of transsexuals.

[Miniar]

Kinda sad that a place like Cuba can be more enlightened than more 'enlightened' nations when it comes too the needs of transsexuals.

I find it ironic actually...