• The Electoral Council reported that 74.1 percent of eligible voters participated in Sunday’s national referendum.
• 3,936,790 people voted in favor of the new law while 1,950,010 went against it.
• The new family code protects women, children, and the elderly.

Cuba has legalized same-sex marriage after Cubans voted in favor of a family code that enhanced minority protections, the country’s National Electoral Council announced Monday.

The Electoral Council reported that 74.1 percent of eligible voters participated in Sunday’s national referendum.

On Monday at 09:00 am, 3,936,790 people voted in favor of the new law while 1,950,010 went against it. The outnumbered positive votes showed overwhelming support.

The new family code protects women, children, and the elderly and permits LGBTQ couples to marry and adopt children.

On the communist-run island of Cuba, LGBTQ people have faced official discrimination for decades. After Fidel Castro’s rise to power in the early 1960s, many homosexuals were sent to government work camps alongside political dissidents. Even though homosexuality was legalized in Cuba in 1979, many homosexual men and women reported facing open discrimination.

Mariela Castro, daughter of former Cuban president Raul Castro, has openly advocated for improved rights for gays, lesbians, and transgender people through a government-funded center. However, the push for greater equality was met with opposition from both within and outside the Cuban government.

In 2018, Cuban legislators abandoned provisions that would have legalized same-sex marriage out of concern that a homophobic backlash would have reduced voter participation in a referendum on a new constitution. Cuban police disrupted a peaceful LGBTQ rights parade the following year because the marchers lacked permission to hold the event.

The expanding evangelical community in Cuba had openly opposed the adoption of the family code. In the weeks preceding the referendum, however, the Cuban government made a concerted effort to promote the new family code through state-run media, arguing that the new code demonstrates the island’s more than six-decade-old revolution’s ability to adapt to the times.

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