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Tue May 9, 2017, 07:42 AM May 2017

Communist-Ruled Cuba Hosts First Transgender Religious Ceremony



Trans pastors Cindy Bourgeois from Canada (center) and Alexya Salvador from Brazil (left) listen to trans Baptist reverend Allyson Robinson from the U.S. during a mass in Matanzas, Cuba, on May 5, 2017. Alexandre Meneghini / Reuters

by REUTERS
MAY 7 2017, 4:39 PM ET

MATANZAS, Cuba — For decades belonging to a religion and being anything but heterosexual was stigmatized in Communist-ruled, macho Cuba, making the Mass held by three transgender pastors in the western Cuban city of Matanzas all the more groundbreaking.

Rainbow flags decorated the chapel, while the pastors, who had flown in from Brazil, Canada and the United States, wore stoles in the trans hues of light blue, pink and white and the congregation swayed to Caribbean beats.

Friday was the first time a trans pastor held a Holy Communion in Cuba, highlighting how much the island nation has changed since both religious believers and gays went to "correctional" labor camps in the early years after the 1959 revolution.

"Tonight has been a night of celebration of equality between all people, marking a new era for Cuba," said Alexya Salvador, a Brazilian trans pastor wearing a black dress with a white clerical collar and lacy sleeves she made herself.

"God's love is radically inclusive."

http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/communist-ruled-cuba-hosts-first-transgender-religious-ceremony-n756071
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