What do the present writer and the daughter of Cuba's President Raul Castro Mariela have in common- not much you ight think but we were both hoping to go to Philadelphia- myself to spend Thanksgiving with my cousins this November, and she to attend a gay rights conference in the City Of Brotherly Love(and presumably to receive an award for her work on behalf of Cuba's LGBT community), but suddenly the US State Department has refused Ms.Castro permission to visit Philly- the real irony is that she is NOT in her native Cuba but currently attending the UN in New York- Cuban diplomats need official US permission to travel 25 miles beyond New York( just as other Soviet bloc ones did during the Cold War)
Now I have been highly critical of the Castro regime's human rights record in this blog( see my postings in support of "Los Damas De Blanco"- The Ladies In White, a group of courageous Cuban women who act as human rights activists-much to the regime's visible irritation) as much as I am of the continued US inspired "blockade/embargo" of the Communist ruled island, (see my postings in support of Jay and wife Beyonce over their recent visit to Havana), but I for one fail to see what US interest is served by banning Ms Castro from making a couple of hours drive or train ride to Philly for a gay rights conference.
Does anybody think as I do?
Terry
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