Cuba Votes To Legalise Gay Marriages, Adoptions And Surrogate Pregnancies
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On Monday, 3.9 million Cubans approved a government-backed referendum that legalises same-sex marriage, adoption, and surrogate pregnancies.
Around 66 percent voted in favour of the new “Family Code.”
The new code contains more than 400 articles, which includes defining marriage as the union between two people instead of a man and a woman.
Recognises ‘Several Fathers or Mothers in Addition to the Biological Parents’
It legally recognises same-sex adoptions and “several fathers or mothers in addition to the biological parents.”
Surrogate pregnancies are also permitted as long as no money is exchanged.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who led the “Yes” campaign celebrated the approval, tweeting, “Yes won. Justice has been done. To approve the [Family Code] is to do justice. 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.
“Starting today, we will be a better nation.”
Ganó el Sí. Se ha hecho justicia. Aprobar el #CódigoDeLasFamilias es hacer justicia. Es saldar una deuda con varias generaciones de cubanas y cubanos, cuyos proyectos de familia llevan años esperando por esta Ley. A partir de hoy seremos una nación mejor. #ElAmorYaEsLey ❤️🇨🇺 pic.twitter.com/O5o0Hi2cm1
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) September 26, 2022
Activist and journalist Maykel González Vivero tweeted, “And in the end we won!! #Cuba has a Family Code. Start the path of enforcing it.
Y al final ganamos!! #Cuba tiene Código de las Familias. Empieza el camino de hacerlo cumplir. https://t.co/fiULqLYbcG
— Maykel Vivero 🎯 (@MGVivero) September 26, 2022
Mariela Castro, the director of the National Center for Sex Education and the daughter and niece of the two last presidents of Cuba, also supported the measure.
According to SBS News, the main opposition to the new code was the Protestant and Catholic churches.
Turnout was also low compared to past referendums. 74 percent of Cubans took part and cast a ballot. In 2019 a referendum to adopt a new constitution passed with 90 percent of Cubans voting.
This was also the first public vote in Cuba about something besides constitutional change.
