New Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel supports the legalization of same-sex marriage in his country.
"I defend there being no kind of discrimination," Diaz-Canel told Telesur, a Venezuelan television station, in his first interview since being elected in April. "We've been going through a massive thought evolution, and many taboos have been broken.”
Cuba is currently drafting a new constitution to replace the current governing document prepared in 1976 during the Cold War. Same-sex marriage has been approved by Cuba’s National Assembly and is a part of the draft constitution that has been placed for a vote. The new constitution will define marriage as “the consensual union of two people, regardless of gender,” according to The Guardian.
This change is the latest example of Cuba’s progressive stance on LGBTQ rights. The communist nation has allowed its citizens to get gender reassignment surgery and hormone replacement therapy for free since 2008, according to The Independent.
Under former President Fidel Castro’s rule, LGBTQ people experienced harsh discrimination and were even sent to correctional labor camps. Castro later apologized for his actions, according to Reuters.
Fidel's niece, Mariela, has been a strong advocate for LGBTQ rights in Cuba. Mariela, daughter of Fidel’s successor, Raul Castro, is the director of the National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX) and led a “Congo Against Homophobia and Transphobia” in March.
“CENESEX has been educating and lobbying on this issue since 2007, and has been the main force here, but all of our actions have played a role,” activist Marta María Ramirez said in July. “The National Assembly is now responding to specific demands of the people and not only to their own experiences as bureaucrats.”
Still, there is some resistance. Flyers advocating "traditional" marriage have been plastered around the island.
“I am in favor of the original design: the family as God created it,” read one. Religious institutions have been resistant to LGBTQ rights. Several churches issued a joint statement expressing their opposition, saying LGBTQ rights have “nothing whatsoever to do with our culture, our independence struggles nor with the historic leaders of the Revolution.”
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