BY STEVE ROTHAUS, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com
Last spring, many gay activists in South Florida protested several U.S. appearances by Fidel Castro's niece, Mariela Castro.
"For Mariela Castro, or anybody else under the Castro dictatorship, to say they are representing the rights of anyone is an insult to the hundreds of thousands who have either been killed, jailed or assassinated by their own hands, or the nearly 100,000 people who’ve jumped into the ocean looking for freedom who haven’t made it here," said Herb Sosa, executive director of Unity Coalition, Miami-Dade County's leading Hispanic gay rights group, before Castro's speaking engagements with gay activists in San Francisco and New York City.
Anti-Castro protesters were particularly incensed by Castro's visit to the New York Public Library for a May 29 discussion with Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
Now, activists are planning a discussion in New York City titled LGBT Lives in Contemporary Cuba.
From Maria C. Werlau, executive director of the Cuba Archive project:
The Mariela Castro program indicated that the international media is interested in this important issue. Unfortunately, this event will be held at a facility in Harlem --not at the main building on Fifth Avenue, as the Mariela event was-- plus, it is on a Saturday. But, we are helping coordinate the telephone intervention of two independent LGBT activists in Cuba, voices from the island rarely heard abroad, and know some of the other panelists who will offer interesting real-life perspectives. So, we hope the event will be well attended and will be covered by the media.
IF YOU GO
LGBT Lives in Contemporary Cuba
Saturday, September 15th,3PM
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Blvd.
New York NY 10037
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