Famed sexologist Mariela Castro, daughter of the Cuban president, said on Thursday she expected her country this year will pass a same-sex marriage law, although she said Cuba still needs to be "more revolutionary" in its treatment of gays.
Mariela Castro said she "has the hope that this year" parliament will pass legislation to legalize gay marriage in Cuba, although the bill under debate by lawmakers here "sad to say is not everything that we would have hoped for."
She made her remarks with the political establishment in the United States in roiling a day after President Barack Obama said he supports gay marriage.
Castro looked to another of its neighbors, Argentina, as the model after which she would have liked to pattern Cuba's gay rights agenda.
She praised the fact that Buenos Aires legalized gay marriage back in 2010, and as well as the passage by the Argentine Senate on Wednesday of a "sexual identity" bill allowing transvestites and transgendered people to choose how their sex is reported on official documents.
"The legislation in Argentina is so advanced, so democratic," she said in remarks made at a public forum here. "It pains me that even in revolution, Cuba is not as revolutionary as we would like."
The daughter of President Raul Castro and the niece of former President Fidel Castro, Castro runs Cuba's National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX).
She is an outspoken advocate for the rights of homosexuals and transsexuals in Cuba.
She praised Cuba's Communist Party Congress held in January for having resolved "to fight against all forms of discrimination, including against sexual discrimination, and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and sexual identity."
"It's a hugely important first step," she said.