Cuba resumed its program of state-funded sex changes recently amidst growing health care cuts, the Advocate.com reports.
President Raul Castro‘s daughter, Mariela Castro, leading gay rights activist in the country and head of the National Sexual Education Center, worked to reinstate the program, which ended nearly two decades ago because of its questioned cost effectiveness, the article states.
Cuba and other South American countries experience widespread homophobia, the report suggests, but this program illustrates the steps these nations are taking to transition into the modern world.
Under the communist government, doctors earn salaries worth about $20, according to the Advocate.com. Reinstating the sexual reassignment surgeries would help alleviate some of the health care cuts the nation made due to the recession.
For the original Advocate.com article, click here.
