Cuban Voters Legalize Gay Marriage and Adoption

metroweekly.com:

more than 79,000 community meetings between February and April to discuss some of the proposed changes, and amended some of its provisions based on community feedback, reports The Associated Press.Cuba’s National Assembly passed the revised code in July before sending it to the voters for final approval.While there are no independent observers of Cuban elections, Reuters reports that scattered local reports of district counts on social media appeared to align with official tallies.

The approval of the code marks a significant shift with respect to both the government’s support for LGBTQ rights, and general attitudes towards homosexuality among Cubans.In the early 1960s, after former dictator Fidel Castro took power, many gay people were fired from their jobs and sent to labor camps known as Military Units to Aid Production, reports the Miami Herald.Although homosexuality was later legalized in 1979, many gay men and women reported experiencing discrimination in their daily lives.

Under Cuba’s Communist regime, independent civil society groups are restricted, meaning that advances on LGBTQ rights have largely been pushed for by the government, which cast a “yes” vote in favor of the revised code to support for the existing political system.

Mariela Castro, the niece of Fidel Castro and the daughter of former President Raúl Castro, has been one of the most vocal proponents of LGBTQ rights.She has used her position as director of the government-funded Cuban National Center for Sex Education to advocate for a shift in attitudes and promote policies that bar workplace discrimination against LGBTQ people and require the country’s public health system to provide gender confirmation surgery free of charge.Some dissidents have.