Small But Significant Cuban Pride March

It wasn't like New York or San Francisco, but a Cuban Gay Pride celebration — the first ever — was just as meaningful.

The Tuesday event in Havana consisted of a 1,600 foot march from Prado Avenue to a seaside boulevard. The peaceful pride celebration coincides with a sea change in Cuba, where the rights of gays have been championed by Mariela Castro, the influential first daughter of Cuba. The communist nation was previously hostile to gays, forcing many into hiding.

"We're trying to do the real work of a revolution, to 'change what must be changed,'" local gay rights leader Leannes Imbert, quoting an expression by Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro, told Agence France Press.