National Center for Sex Education

The National Center for Sex Education (Spanish: Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual, CENESEX) is a government-funded body founded in 1989 in Cuba.

CENESEX stresses acceptance of sexual diversity and has attracted international attention in recent years for its campaigns for the rights of transgender persons, including the recognition of an individual’s gender identity, regardless of birth sex, and provision of state-funded sexual reassignment surgery.

In 1972, the National Sex Education Working Group (Spanish: Grupo Nacional de Trabajo de Educación Sexual) was founded as its own entity to develop and coordinate these types of activities in Cuban institutions and society.

The center pushed for passage of a law that would provide transgender persons with free sex reassignment surgery and hormone replacement therapy in addition to granting them new legal identification documents with their changed gender.

Prior to being approved, it was suggested that the bill would make Cuba the most progressive nation in Latin America on gender issues.