Cuba overwhelmingly votes to legalise same-sex marriage
supports HTML5 videoBut it doesn’t end there. The package also expands protections for women, children and the elderly, allows for surrogate pregnancies and encourages couples to share housework and other domestic responsibilities.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel said ‘love is now the law’ in a statement celebrating the vote.‘Justice had been done,’ he tweeted, adding that the code is a way to ‘pay off the debt of several generations’ of Cubans. ‘As of today,’ Díaz-Canel added, ‘we will be a better nation.’Minister for foreign affairs Bruno Rodríguez tweeted: ‘Cuba has a new family code.‘Code Yes was the majority vote.
Our people opted for a revolutionary, uplifting law that drives us to achieve social justice for which we work every day.’The Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual, or Cenesex, a state-run organisation that advocates for LGBTQ+ equality, said: ‘Love and affection won.’The Código De Las Familias refreshed the island nation’s four-decade-old family law.And Cubans thought such a change was needed, given that 74% of the 8.4 million eligible voters took part, according to preliminary results.But the referendum faced stiff resistance from the Roman Catholic Church and the island’s growing evangelical movement, clashing against the government’s public messaging urging people to vote yes.Though some human rights activists felt that putting the rights of LGBTQ+ up for vote should never have happened in the first place.
Juan Pappier and Cristian González Cabrera, researchers at Human Rights Watch, wrote in a column in May: ‘The recognition of the rights of minorities, including LGBT people, should not hinge on a popularity vote.
