Democracy Now! June 11, 2012

June 11, 2012 from Democracy Now! via Creative Commons License BY-NC-ND

Democracy Now! interviews Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuban President Raúl Castro, on her support for LGBTQ rights, ending the US embargo, and swapping the US-held "Cuban Five" prisoners for jailed contractor Alan Gross. Then award-winning journalist, filmmaker, author, and professor Saul Landau discusses his new film "Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up," about US support for violent anti-Castro militants. Plus headlines, and more.

(more) (less)

In This Video

Cuban National Center for Sex Education

The National Center for Sex Education is a government-funded body in Cuba. The center is best known for advocating tolerance of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and transgender issues on the island. The head of the center is Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuban leader Raúl Castro, the brot... Explore this topic

Mariela Castro

Mariela Castro Espín is the director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education in Havana and an activist for LGBT rights in Cuba. Explore this topic

Cuban Five

The Cuban Five, also known as the Miami Five are five Cuban intelligence officers convicted in Miami of conspiracy to commit espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, acting as an agent of a foreign government, and other illegal activities in the United States. The Five were in ... Explore this topic

Cuba

Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the capital of Cuba and its largest city, followed by Santiago de Cuba. To the nor... Explore this topic

LGBT rights

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender social movements are movements that advocate for the full acceptance of LGBT people in society. In these movements, LGBT people and their allies have a long history of campaigning for what is now generally called LGBT rights, sometimes a... Explore this topic

Same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex and/or gender identity. Legal recognition of same-sex marriage or the possibility to perform a same-sex marriage is sometimes referred to as marriage equality or equal marriage, particularly by suppor... Explore this topic

US-Cuba relations

Cuba and the United States of America have had an interest in one another since well before either of their independence movements. Plans for purchase of Cuba from the Spanish Empire were put forward at various times by the United States. As the Spanish influence waned in the ... Explore this topic

Raúl Castro

Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz is a Cuban politician and revolutionary who has been President of the Council of State of Cuba and the President of the Council of Ministers of Cuba since 2008; he previously exercised presidential powers in an acting capacity from 2006 to 2008. He is C... Explore this topic

Alan Phillip Gross

Alan Phillip Gross (born May 2, 1949) is an American social worker and international development professional. In December 2009 he was arrested while in Cuba as a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of a program funded under the 1996 He... Explore this topic

LGBT

LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. In use since the 1990s, the term LGBT is an adaptation of the initialism LGB, which itself started replacing the phrase gay community beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, wh... Explore this topic

Also See

US-Cuba relations

Cuba

Cuban Five