Cuba to hold a mass gay wedding to promote gay rights

Activists will be led by daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro

(Getty Images)

Gay marriage remains illegal in Cuba, but activists – led by the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro – are holding a mass gay wedding this weekend in Havana to promote gay rights.

The wedding will be held alongside Cuba’s annual gay-pride parade, the BBC reported. At the moment it can only be symbolic, but Mariela Castro says she hopes the mass wedding will lead to change in the future.

“We can't do a wedding, but we wanted to have a very modest celebration of love with some religious leaders,” Ms Castro told the BBC. “In the future we'll see what more we can do.”

The president’s daughter – and granddaughter of former president Fidel Castro – is the chief of the National Sex Education Centre and a member of the Cuban National Assembly, and she has played a large role in promoting gay rights in the communist country.

In the last several years, Cuba has made progress in gay rights, including approving free sex-change operations for qualified citizens and banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. In 2012, Cubans elected a transgender politician to a municipal council.

After Fidel Castro stepped down from his presidential post in 2008, he said he was wrong to discriminate against gays. Ms Castro has also said her father supports gay marriage, though legislation would still have to pass before it could become legal in Cuba.

Follow @PaytonGuion on Twitter.