Cuba approves same-sex marriage in unusual referendum

HAVANA (AP) — Cubans have permitted a sweeping “household regulation” code that may permit same-sex {couples} to marry and undertake in addition to redefining rights for youngsters and grandparents, officers stated Monday, although opposition within the nationwide referendum was unusually sturdy on the Communist Occasion-governed island.

The measure — which accommodates greater than 400 articles — was permitted by 66.9% to 33.1%, the president of the Nationwide Electoral Council, Alina Balseiro Gutiérrez, advised official information media, although returns from a couple of locations remained to be counted.

The reforms had met unusually sturdy open resistance from the rising evangelical motion in Cuba — and lots of different Cubans — regardless of an in depth authorities marketing campaign in favor of the measure, together with 1000’s of informative conferences throughout the nation and intensive media protection backing it.

Cuban elections — during which no social gathering apart from the Communist is allowed — routinely produce victory margins of greater than 90% — as did a referendum on a significant constitutional reform in 2019.

The code permits surrogate pregnancies, broader rights for grandparents in regard to grandchildren, safety of the aged and measures in opposition to gender violence.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who has promoted the regulation acknowledged questions concerning the measure as he voted on Sunday.

“Most of our individuals will vote in favor of the code, however it nonetheless has points that our society as a complete doesn’t perceive,” he stated.

On Monday, he celebrated approval of the measure, tweeting “Love is now the regulation.”

Passage “is to pay a debt to numerous era of Cubans whose home plans had been ready years for this regulation,” he added. “As of immediately, we shall be a greater nation.”

The measure had been permitted by Cuba’s Parliament, the Nationwide Meeting, after years of debate about such reforms.

A significant supporter of the measure was Mariela Castro, director of the Nationwide Middle for Intercourse Schooling, a promoter of rights for same-sex {couples}, daughter of former President Raul Castro and niece of his brother Fidel.

However there’s a sturdy pressure of social conservatism in Cuba and a number of other non secular leaders have expressed concern or opposition to the regulation., worrying it might weaken nuclear households.

Whereas Cuba was formally — and sometimes militantly — atheist for many years after the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro — Raul’s brother — it has turn into extra tolerant of religions over the previous quarter century. That has meant a higher opening not solely the once-dominant Roman Catholic Church, but in addition to Afro-Cuban religions, protestants and Muslims.

A few of these church buildings took benefit of the opening in 2018 and 2019 to marketing campaign in opposition to one other plebiscite which might have rewritten the structure in a solution to permit homosexual marriage.

Opposition was sturdy sufficient that the federal government at the moment backed away.