Cuba

KEY WEST, Fla. — With her lips and tongue swollen, U.S. endurance swimmer Diana Nyad edged closer to Florida on Monday in her attempt to become the first person to swim the treacherous waters from Cuba to Key West without a shark cage.

HAVANA, Cuba — Cuba’s first daughter, Mariela Castro-Espín, on Sunday said the country’s lawmakers will consider legalizing same-sex civil unions this year.

On a sweltering, rainy afternoon in Havana, Ignacio Estrada, an HIV positive gay man, and Wendy Triepa, a transgendered woman, on Saturday became the first gay couple to be legally married in Cuba.

In an interview last week with Mexican newspaper La Jornada, Fidel Castro accepted responsibility for Cuba’s persecution of gays and lesbians decades ago.