The Cuban government has cancelled a parade widely seen as a sign of progress on gay rights.

The state-run Center for Sex Education run by Mariela Castro, the daughter of Communist Party First Secretary Raul Castro, said in a Facebook post Tuesday that the Conga Against Homophobia scheduled for an unspecified date this month had been cancelled on orders of the Ministry of Health.

The statement attributed the cancellation to "new tensions in the international and regional context that directly and indirectly affect our country and have tangible and intangible impacts in the normal development of our daily life and the implementation of the policies of the Cuban state." The statement did not elaborate.

The Cuban government persecuted gays in the 1960s and '70s but has since outlawed discrimination.