"Time" Names Angela Merkel Person of the Year; Cuba Slowly Accepting LGBT Community.
CURNOW: Welcome back. I'm Robyn Curnow. "Time" magazine has named its 2015 Person of the Year and it's German chancellor Angela Merkel. The magazine praised her leadership during Europe's refugee crisis in a climate of sharply divided views. Let's get more from Alexandra Field in London. Hi, there, Alexandra. This really wasn't much of a surprise. What else did they say when they tapped her?</s>ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it really wasn't much of a surprise, specifically when you look at "Time" magazine and they call her Europe's most powerful leader. They point to a number of different stories that have unfolded over the course of the year that have really brought her front and center on the international stage, whether it was her leadership of Europe's economic crisis or here more recent handling of Europe's refugee crisis. Again, it's her policy that's led --</s>FIELD: -- hundreds of thousands of refugees to find shelter in Germany. Of course, these policies have not been without conflict, without controversy. Frankly, the policies have drawn the ire of some. But "Time" really underscores the point that they have chosen her as their Person of the Year because of her ability to lead. And they put it this way, quite frankly, you can agree with her or not but she is not taking the easy road. And for that it seems that "Time's" editors felt that she deserved this honor.</s>CURNOW: OK. Well, let's talk about who came second, the leader of ISIS. "Time" said they had no problem potentially giving him this accolade. They felt that he -- but they felt that he didn't really deserve the top prize. I mean, tell us about that.</s>FIELD: Right. You can appreciate the editorial lead. That would certainly be a difficult division to put this man's face on the cover of a magazine. You run the risk, of course, of glorifying or glamorizing in some way. But the point of Person of the Year is really you talk about people who have had a profound global impact. And this is somebody who has had a real global impact that the magazine does lay out in a way that they sort of tick through, talking about ISIS' abilities to perpetuate attacks across the world, leading to the death of 1,200 civilians, the magazine notes, outside of Syria and Iraq alone. And with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as the leader of ISIS, they felt that his reach had really been well documented through this horrible series of attacks that have unfolded throughout the year, which is why they have put him in what they called this second place position. But, Robyn, what's interesting, is that if you take a look at the poll online, where readers were able to select who they would choose to have as the Person of the Year, Baghdadi wins pretty handily and then he is followed next by Trump and then Vladimir Putin.</s>CURNOW: OK. And "Time" magazine did say when this was announced that they had put bad guys on the cover before, saying that Hitler had once been given the honor of being Man of the Year. So controversial choices sometimes. Alexandra Field in London, thank you. Being gay in Cuba no longer means an automatic prison sentence. The country is slowly becoming more adapting and accepting. And it's partly because of help from the daughter of the president. CNN's Will Ripley joins us live to tell us more. Hi, there, Will. You just came back from Cuba. You're in New York. Tell us about a story you filed and how you noticed these fascinating new changes.</s>WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I spent two weeks in Cuba reporting, Robyn. And I really wanted to look into life for LGBT people in Cuba. Because remember, this is an island nation, where in the '60s and '70s, people who were gay were sent to labor reform camps and even as recently as 10 years ago if you publicly displayed any homosexual act, you could go to prison. However, lately, thanks in part to President Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela Castro, the country has been making a real push towards LGBT equality. But I spoke to some people who say the country still has a long way to go.</s>RIPLEY (voice-over): The show goes on at 2:00 am, Havana's drag queen cabaret, lip-synching six nights a week as cocktails flow and crowds grow. Cuba's underground gay scene slowly becoming mainstream, this new club the latest to openly cater to LGBT customers. "Now there's a boom. All the bars want to have drag queens," says Kitty Om (ph), who began performing in secret 21 years ago. She takes us to a tiny dressing room packed with female impersonators. Some do drag full-time. "Ten years ago," she says, "we might have been scared to perform or even to meet in certain places." A decade ago, Cubans could still go to prison for public displays of homosexuality. In the 1960s and '70s, the Castro regime persecuted sexual minorities, sending some people to labor camps. Today, President Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela Castro, runs the National Center for Sex Education, Cuba's only state agency advocating for LGBT rights. Kitty Om (ph) says she's a health promoter, conveying the state- controlled safe sex message during her shows. But critics say the Cuban government overlooks a huge problem in the LGBT community. Sex workers catering to foreigners can earn more in a single night than a Cuban doctor makes in a month. Several men we spoke to say gay for pay is one of many issues ignored by Cuba's mainstream LGBT activists. Riko Pen Nunez (ph) says it's still complicated to be openly gay on the Communist-run island. "For example," he says, "if I walk down the street right now holding my partner's hand, it would not be taken well. People would stare, make comments." He says his family accepts him but all of his ex-boyfriends have left Cuba. He says those who stay are still forced to lead "una doble vida," a double life. "My dream is to get married, to have kids," he says, "to have the same rights as someone who's straight. But here, it's complicated." He dreams of equality and the end of homophobia that still permeates Cuban society, a dream even the most optimistic LGBT advocates say is likely decades away.</s>RIPLEY: It really has been a dramatic turnaround by the government, though, with the former president, Fidel Castro, actually expressing regret for the way that gay people were treated in the past, calling it, quote, "a great injustice" -- Robyn.</s>CURNOW: Yes, significant. I just want to -- you touched on it briefly in your piece there, prostitution. Why is it so prevalent?</s>RIPLEY: Well, it really peaked during the economic crisis in Cuba back in the 1990s, when the Soviet Union imploded and a lot of financial assistance stopped. It was very, very difficult times in Cuba. And prostitution became in many ways a legitimate means of earning an income. On a single night, as the piece mentioned, a sex worker catering to men or to women can earn well more than what a Cuban doctor or a lawyer or any professional would earn in an entire month. And so what you have a very, very large sex business going on, both gay and straight. And even though the government is trying to, you know, somehow provide more inclusion and more equality for LGBT people, they're not touching on this prostitution angle in part because it's such a necessary form of income for a lot of people there.</s>CURNOW: OK. Very good point. Great piece. Important piece. Will Ripley in New York, thanks so much. Well, that does it for is here at the INTERNATIONAL DESK. I'm Robyn Curnow. I'll be back in just over an hour. In the meantime, "CONNECT THE WORLD" is next. END