Cuba Just Took a Huge Step Toward Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage
Cuba could soon legalise same-sex marriage with a long-awaited update to the country’s family code.
On Wednesday, Cuba’s Ministry of Justice published a proposed draft to update its existing family code. This governing document covers domestic issues such as marriage, divorce, and parent-child relations. The code’s newly revised Article 61 defines marriage as “the voluntarily arranged union of two people with a legal aptitude for it, to live together, based on affection and love.”
The document currently defines marriage as a “union between a man and a woman,” as the Cuban news outlet Tremnda Nota reports.
A proposed article in the Family Code regarding “multipotentiality” would outline the rights of non-nuclear families. Its language potentially permits a person to have more than two legal parents regardless of biological ties. However, it’s unclear whether these legal designations would also apply to non-monogamous family structures.
The draft also introduces the concept of “maternity.” The term refers to lesbian couples with children and recognises “assisted parentage” as a right rather than merely an option to assist infertility.
Ratifying the draft would represent a significant overhaul for the Family Code, approved initially in 1975. In a note accompanying the release of the new language, the Cuban Ministry of Justice (CMJ) wrote that the 46-year-old law is “no longer consistent with the family diversity of Cuban society.”
“In addition, it is essential to provide ourselves with legislation on this matter that reflects the reality that exists in our daily lives,” the government department said, “and provides immediate and specialised legal mechanisms with the fundamental purpose of proposing harmonious solutions in the innumerable family conflicts that do not find protection in this legislation.”
While the proposed revisions to the Family Code do, indeed, advance the rights of families not included in the original law, the draft does not mention the rights of trans or nonbinary people, according to Tremenda Nota.
Although the Family Code language is imperfect, many expressed support for the changes to be adopted. Maykel González Vivero, a reporter for Tremenda Nota, referred to the draft as “all that could be desired” but acknowledged it would face significant challenges in the public comment period, specifically from religious conservatives.
“More than 20 Christian churches, including the Catholic one, rejected the Code without having read it,” he tweeted on Wednesday.
González Vivero also pointed out that the Catholic Bishops of Cuba successfully delayed the Implementation of LGBTQ+ sex education nationwide. Religious officials reportedly opposed the curriculum due to concerns about “gender ideology.”
After a public comment period, legislators will revise the draft according to popular feedback. According to the Ministry of Justice, the amended document will then be submitted for approval to Cuba’s national legislature, known as the National Assembly of People's Power, in December. The timeline for parliamentary approval is not clear.
Although LGBTQ+ Cubans enjoy a number of rights and protections, the fight for recognition of same-sex marriage has been slow-going. Federal lawmakers have been attempting to update the Family Code since 2006, according to Reuters. A 2018 revision to the Cuban Constitution would have legalised marriage equality, but legislators ended up scrapping the revision due to staunch evangelical opposition.
Cuba has made notable advances toward equality in recent years, even
despite the country’s discriminatory past. LGBTQ+ people are protected from discrimination under the country’s constitution, and trans people have had access to free gender-affirming health care since 2008. Additionally, trans people have been allowed to freely corrected their legal name and gender without surgery since 2013, although nonbinary identities have yet to be recognized.
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