A Cuban minister who accepts gay marriages and traveling permits for Cubans wishing to leave or travel to the island may finally be eliminated, seem to be evidence of a new tolerant environment in the continent’s longest lasting dictatorship.

Public statements were made during a debate sponsored by interim president Raúl Castro, brother of ailing Fidel, to bring to light shortcomings and disappointments with the system and thus help to “deepen communism”.

Culture Minister Abel Prieto, a member of the party’s powerful Politburo, said Tuesday night that he supports gay marriage, and Silvio Rodriguez, an ardent defender of Fidel Castro as well as a leading voice of the Cuban revolution, said he believes all Cubans should be free to travel abroad and stay in hotels currently reserved for foreign tourists.

“I think that marriage between lesbians, between homosexuals can be perfectly approved and that in Cuba that wouldn’t cause an earthquake or anything like that,” Prieto told a small group of reporters following the presentation of a documentary on Rodriguez’s career at Havana’s Museum of Fine Arts.

Cuban lawmakers have received a proposal to allow gay marriages, though its progress in the legislature, which usually only meets twice a year, remains unclear.