From Reuters:
“Cubans approve gay marriage
by large margin in referendum”
Cubans approved gay marriage and
adoption overwhelmingly in a Sunday referendum backed by the government that
also boosted rights for women, the national election commission said on Monday.
More than 3.9 million voters voted to ratify the code (66.9%), while 1.95
million opposed ratification (33%), Alina Balseiro Gutierrez, president of the
commission, said on state-run television on Monday. "Justice has been
done," Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote in a tweet. "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," he said.
The 100-page "family
code" legalizes same-sex marriage and civil unions, allows same-sex
couples to adopt children, and promotes equal sharing of domestic rights and
responsibilities between men and women. Preliminary results from the electoral
commission showed 74% of 8.4 million Cubans eligible to vote participated in
the Sunday referendum.
There are no independent
observers of Cuban elections, although citizens may observe the count at their
precincts. Scattered local reports of district counts on social media appeared
to tally with the official results. The announcement of the results came as
Diaz-Canel presided over an emergency meeting as the Caribbean island prepared
for Hurricane Ian to pass over its western tip early on Tuesday. Official
Twitter accounts showed the room erupting in applause and the president leaning
back and smiling at the news. The Cuban president led the campaign for the
adoption of the code. By Cuban standards Sunday's turnout was relatively
modest, and a 33% 'no' vote relatively large in the communist-run country,
where previous referendums have seen the government position receiving near
unanimous approval.
The dissent is an indication of
both how Cuba is changing and the current dire economic circumstances, which
have seen long power outages and lines for food, medicine and fuel. Sunday's
vote was also the first of its kind since mobile internet was legalized in
2018, which has let dissenting views spread more widely.
^ Cuba still has a lot of
problems (their Economy, Human Rights Abuses, Lack of Political and Personal
Freedoms, etc.) but one thing they did right is approve of Gay Marriage. ^
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