Gay activists in Cuba demand that parliament respect their rights

Gay activists in Cuba demand that parliament respect their rights
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO, JTAMAYO@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM

Cuban gay activists held a kiss-in demonstration and presented a demand
for respect to the country's parliament on Thursday, as they prepared
for the upcoming island's second annual Gay Pride parade.

Fifty people — mostly gay rights activists but also a handful of
dissidents such as Guillermo Fariñas and Martha Beatriz Roque — signed a
petition calling for civil rights and handed it to the National Assembly
of People's Power, said Ignacio Estrada, a gay activist and dissident.

"Our document calls on the Cuban government to fully comply with
international agreements it has signed on human rights, especially those
that apply to LGBT rights," Estrada said after delivering the petition.

The petition also calls on lawmakers to launch an investigation of the
Military Units to Aid Production, or UMAPs — hard-labor camps created by
Fidel Castro during the 1960s to detain homosexuals and government
critics — and requests trials for government officials responsible for
the camps.

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