Lots of flak over Mariela Castro’s SF appearance next week

The daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro and head of her country’s National Center for Sex Education has been granted a visa from the State Department to attend a conference in San Francisco put on by the Latin American Studies Association next week. And you know what that means. Anti-Castro Cuban politicians on both sides of the aisle are up in arms, Miami style. The trip was confirmed this morning. But Sen. Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) was already slamming it yesterday, calling the Cuban gay rights advocate “a vociferous advocate of the regime and opponent of democracy,” AP says.