Cuba votes to legalize marriage equality
On Sunday, the citizens of Cuba participated in an historic referendum which decided the fate of LGBTQ couples moving forward. 3.9 million people (which was 66.9% of eligible voters) voted in favor of The Family Plan, while 1.95 million (which comprises 33% of eligible voters) voted against the ratification.
The Family Code legalizes same-sex marriage and civil unions, allows same-sex couples to now adopt children and have children via surrogacy, and goes one step further to promote the equal sharing of domestic rights and responsibilities between both men and women. Over 8 million Cubans over the age of 16 were eligible to participate in the vote.
After the results of the historic vote were evident, the Cuban President took to social media to share the news.
“Justice has been done,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote on Twitter.
“It is paying off a debt with several generations of Cuban men and women, whose family projects have been waiting for this law for years,” he said. “As of today, we will be a better nation.”
The communist government in Cuba was obviously in favor of this idea, and pushed pro-equality messages onto community members for weeks leading up to the referendum. More than 79,000 neighborhood meetings were held in communities around the nation to debate and learn about the upcoming Family Plan. In the week leading up to the vote, the government actively flooded radio, television, and social media with pro-equality messaging. Evangelical church leaders remain in opposition to the referendum.
While homosexuality was decriminalized in 1979, because of the evangelic nature of many folks in Cuba, queer people continued to experience massive amounts of discrimination until recent times. As the results of the referendum emerged, Cubans spoke out, saying that Cuba is evolving and its time for a change in their nation.
