Ignacio is a gay dissident fighting for gay rights in Cuba.
Wendy is a transgender.
On Saturday, the birthday of long-time leader Fidel Castro, their plan to marry was controversial. Same-
In Cuba, same-sex marriage is illegal, and in the past, Cuba had little tolerance for homosexuality and had been operating camps for many years to remove the "counter-revolutionary" values.
Attitudes have changed in part because of the efforts made by sexual therapists Mariela Castro and the daughters of President Raul Castro.
Technically, Saturday's wedding was not a gay union because Wendy was officially identified as a woman.
But the wedding plan is challenging public views on homosexuality, transgender people, marriage and how these three live together
It exists in this island country.
Ignacio Estrada, a 31-year-old gay rights activist, said the couple's wedding would "mark a new step in Cuba" and "give Fidel Castro last year, he acknowledged his role in the decades of discrimination against homosexuality.
"This is not a provocation.
It's a recognition, "Estrada told AFP at a flower shop in the center of Havana, helping fiancee Wendy iripa pick up the wedding bouquet.
Iripa, 37, said she had given up her former male identity-Alexis-and lived a "woman's dream" Four years later ". Thanks to the transgender surgery performed by the Mariela Castro Sex Education Center (Cenesex). "Great.
It will be the first gay wedding in Cuba.
I don't want this to be seen as a political act.
Even if it's a gift for Fidel, I don't worry what the government will think . "
Iriepa, a former Cenesex employee close to Mariela Castro, said that the president's daughter refused to testify at the ceremony after learning that Estrada was an dissident. Well-
The well-known Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez has now been selected as a witness to the couple's marriage and plans to run live streaming videos on her blog via Twitter.
"Wendy and Ignacio sent Cuba to the third millennium," Sanchez wrote on her blog, desdecuba . ".
Com/generaciony /.
Cuban dissidents attending the meeting will include members of the gay community and Ladies in White ---
The wife of political prisoners and other female relatives.
Diplomats from the United States interest Department in Cuba will also attend.
Estada and iripa said they knew they fell in love at Cenesex in May 13.
Two days later, Estrada invited iripa for dinner and they stayed together a week later.
It's wedding time.
"Completely symbiotic," Iriepa told AFP . ".
"I 've always said I'm gay," Estrada said . ".
"But it's totally different for Wendy.
I don't know what I am today--
All I know is that I fell in love with a woman.
Iriepa says she thinks there is no problem with their unusual love story.
"He's gay, but he's a man.
He has a penis and he makes me happy.
I have a penis that I often use when I sell things on the street.
"Now, I will do this if I need to use sex toys for him," said the transgender.
Estrada insisted: "Our wedding will be a tribute to the rights of free and gay, bisexual and transgender people (
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender)community.
"Since 1988, 16 transsexual surgeries have been conducted legally in Cuba.
Mariela Castro's Cenesex is lobbying to legalize it.
Sexual marriage in this island country.