Cuba has voted to allow same-sex marriage, and gay couples will also be allowed to adopt children. Millions of Cuban citizens turned out to vote in favour of a series of reforms covered under a new family code for the communist nation.
All together there were more than 400 items in the package and only 33 per cent of voters indicated they were opposed to the changes.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said there was great joy at the result. Cuban minister of foreign affairs Bruno Rodríguez also welcomed the change saying the country is now a “better place” with “more rights”.
In 1958 following the Cuban revolution queer people were often imprisoned and set to labour camps alongside dissidents opposed to the new Castro regime. Homosexuality was decriminalised in 1979, but LGBTIQA+ people still faced regular discrimination.
Marriage equality was first achieved in The Netherlands in 2001, after than laws were changed in Belgium, Canada, Spain, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Mexico, Portugal, Iceland, Argentina, Brazil, Denmark, France, Uruguay, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Luxenbourg, Ireland, Colombia, Finland, Malta, and Germany.
Australia’s laws were finally changed in 2017 after a national postal vote, following that Austria, Taiwan, Ecuador, and Costa Rica updated their laws. In 2022 Chile, Switzerland, Slovenia and now Cuba have also embraced marriage equality.
OIP Staff
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