Mariela Castro Espín

Mariela Castro Espín is the director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education in Havana, as well as the National Commission for Comprehensive Attention to Transsexual People, and an activist for LGBT rights in Cuba. Castro is an outspoken advocate for the LGBT+ community and has publicly stated that she will fight for their rights even if it means going against her own family. Castro is widely known as one of the main drivers for the fight for acceptance of the LGBT+ community, especially in Latin American countries—most notably, Cuba—as well as dissolving some of the antiquated stigmas and stereotypes that surround the community. She is the daughter of Communist Party First Secretary Raúl Castro and feminist and revolutionary Vilma Espín, and the niece of former First Secretary Fidel Castro.