A wooden Pride flag hangs on the wall inside the kitchen of Diverso, a private restaurant in Havana’s Vedado neighborhood. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

HAVANA — Cuba’s National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX), which Mariela Castro, the daughter of former Cuban President Raúl Castro, directs, organized a series of events this month in Havana and in the city of Pinar del Río that commemorated the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.

LGBTI activists who work independently of Mariela Castro and CENESEX in Havana and in the provinces of Artemisa and Villa Clara are among those with whom the Washington Blade spoke while in Cuba from May 8-18.

This trip took place less than a month after the Cuban National Assembly selected Miguel Díaz-Canel to succeed Raúl Castro as the country’s president. President Trump last June reinstated some of the travel and trade restrictions that former President Obama lifted in 2014 when he sought to normalize relations between the U.S. and Cuba.