Raul Castro’s daughter will travel to the US to accept an award for gay rights advocacy, officials stated on Tuesday. The move is a reversal from last week when Mariela Castro’s visa request for the conference was rejected.
Now, Castro is set to attend the Equality Forum’s annual conference on civil rights for lesbians, gays, bisexual, and transgender people.
The news comes after the advocacy group’s executive director, Malcolm Lazin, criticized the State Department’s decision to deny the Cuban president’s daughter her visa. Lazin added that organizers are “delighted” at the department’s apparent change of heart. On Tuesday, Lazin added:
“She is unquestionably the leader for progressive change for the LGBT community in Cuba. Her accomplishments are nothing short of remarkable.”
While high-ranking Cuban government officials and Communist Party members require special dispensation to enter the United States, Cuban academics, scientists, and entertainers, have an easier time. Mariela Castro is the daughter of President Raul Castro and the niece of retired Cuban president Fidel Castro .
Mariela is also a married mother of three and the director of the country’s National Center for Sex Education, part of Cuba’s public health ministry. During her time in the position, Castro has instituted multiple awareness campaigns, trained police on relations with the LGBT community, and also lobbied lawmakers to legalize same-sex unions.
Castro accepted the group’s invitation to attend the conference months ago. Lazin explained that he was surprised her visa was initially turned down, because she was allowed to attend an academic conference last year in San Francisco. But the visa she received last year was criticized by some Cuban-Americans, like Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who called her “a vociferous advocate of the regime and opponent of democracy.”
It is not clear what change the State Department’s mind regarding issuing a visa to Raul Castro’s daughter, allowing her to enter the US for the LGBT rights conference.
