http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/7/16/221009.shtml
Bush Says Castro Welcomes Sex Tourism
NewsMax Wires
Saturday, July 17, 2004
TAMPA, Fla. -- President Bush on Friday accused Fidel Castro of exploiting Cuba's children by encouraging a sex-tourism industry designed to draw cash to the impoverished nation, comments certain to resonate with Cuban-American voters in the swing state of Florida
"The regime in Havana, already one of the worst violators of human rights in the world, is adding to its crimes. The dictator welcomes sex tourism," Bush said at a conference on "human trafficking" - forced labor, sex and military service.
Bush's rival, John Kerry, agreed with the president and the Democratic campaign said human trafficking demands a coordinated international response. The Kerry campaign did take issue with the pace of Bush's response, arguing that the president had waited too long - until February of this year - to submit an international pact against trafficking to the Senate.
By combining the human-trafficking issue with his hard-line rhetoric against Castro, Bush hopes to bolster his standing with Cuban-Americans in the state that decided the 2000 election. Friday's trip was Bush's 23rd as president to Florida, and recent polls show the race tied.
Last year, the Bush administration imposed sanctions on Cuba, Burma and North Korea for failing to take steps to stop such practices. In a report last month, the State Department listed Cuba among 10 nations that engage in human trafficking.
The president said Castro had "bragged about" Cuba's sex industry and he quoted Castro as saying: "Cuba has the cleanest and most educated prostitutes in the world."
That apparently was a quote from a 1992 speech in which Castro said prostitution in his country was illegal, but nevertheless present. White House officials said Castro had made the statement in the early 1990s, but could not be more precise.
"There is no cleaner, purer tourism than Cuba's tourism, because there is really no drug trafficking, no gambling houses," Castro told a session of the National Assembly of the People's Government 12 years ago.
"There are no women forced to sell themselves to a man, to a foreigner, to a tourist," Castro said. "Those who do so do it on their own, voluntarily and without any need for it. We can say that they are highly educated hookers and quite healthy, because we are the country with the lowest number of AIDS cases."
But Bush said Castro has turned Cuba into a major destination for sex tourism, which is "a vital source of hard currency to keep his corrupt government afloat."
"My administration is working toward a comprehensive solution to this problem: the rapid, peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba," Bush said.
The president said an "influx of American and Canadian tourists contributed to a sharp increase in child prostitution in Cuba," a claim he attributed to a report from the Protection Project, a legal human-rights research institute based at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Bush said the institute had found this was the case. In fact, the institute had cited "general news reports" suggesting that but had not independently concluded it.
Human traffickers bring as many as 17,500 people into the United States every year, trapping them in slavery-like conditions for forced sex, sweatshop labor and domestic servitude, the administration says. As many as 800,000 people were forcibly moved across borders worldwide in the last year, 80 percent of them women.
Bush did not announce any new initiatives Friday, but said his administration is combatting the problem at home and abroad by:
-Spending more than $295 million since the start of his term to support anti-trafficking programs in more than 120 countries.
-Bringing charges against 110 ringleaders.
-Helping foreign victims in America by treating them as refugees instead of illegal immigrants.
-Arresting more than 3,200 people who pay for sex slaves and other forced laborers.
Bush's campaign rally in Beckley, West Virginia, another battleground, was his 10th visit to the state as president. Kerry visited a day earlier.
http://www.365gay.com/newscontent/111703louisianaGov.htm
Louisiana Elects Gay-Positive Governor
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: November 17, 2003 12:02 a.m. ET
(New Orleans, Louisiana) Louisiana voters elected Kathleen Blanco as the state's first woman gay-positive governor Sunday.
Blanco, a Democrat, was endorsed by state LGBT groups following a meeting with the Louisiana League for Equality. Her opponent in Sunday's runoff, Republican Bobby Jindal, refused to meet with the group claiming he did not have time.
When Jindal received an endorsement from New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, the mayor's advisory committee on gay issues resigned. (story) In a statement the Advisory Committee on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues called the endorsement "unconscionable and incomprehensible."
During a debate last week between the two contenders, Jindal said ''I'm not in favor of special classes or special laws.'' He also said he would support making Louisiana only the third state in America to outlaw gay adoptions.
Blanco said ''the real problem is, we don't have enough loving parents.''
She said she had taken heat from conservative groups for meeting with Louisiana League for Equality.
''I had the decency to meet with a group that represents gay and lesbians,'' Blanco said.
During the meeting Blanco said she would work with the group to pass legislation that would ban job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Blanco also told the group she supports legislation that would ban discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students on school campuses, an effort that failed to pass the Legislature this year.
Jindal's defeat halts a Republican roll that saw the party win three governor seats in the last 40 days.
The Republican wave began with the recall last month of Democratic Governor Gray Davis in California and the election of the GOP's Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Earlier this month, Ernie Fletcher broke a 32-year-old Democratic stranglehold on the Kentucky governor's seat and Haley Barbour, a former Republican National Committee chairman, defeated Democratic incumbent Ronnie Musgrove in Mississippi.
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