Cubans go to the polls this Sunday (25) to vote on a rule that, if approved, will legalize equal marriage and so-called surrogacy, among other issues. It will only be the third referendum in more than 60 years of the regime, which, in this vote, is campaigning for “yes”.
“There is division among Cubans, who are much more concerned about the bread line or the cost of transport. For many, it is propaganda by the regime, and even people from the LGBTQIA+ community think of voting ‘no’, as a punishment “, says to Sheet independent journalist Yoani Sánchez.
“Obviously it can be seen as progress in a country that has long persecuted homosexuals, but there is no way to celebrate that when there is no true democracy. If there is, why has no one called a referendum to approve the new Penal Code, which is draconian?”
Eight million Cubans are entitled to vote, just over a year after historic demonstrations against the dictatorship on July 11, 2021. Brutally repressed, the acts called for sweeping changes in the island’s system of government and economic reforms, as well as greater political participation.
If approved, the Code of Families will modify the Constitution passed in 2019. The legislation also establishes mechanisms to combat domestic violence, allows for sex reassignment and allows minors to be under the responsibility of a family group of more than two people.
“It is the hope of thousands of people whose lives are marked by stories of exclusion and silence. Human beings who have suffered and are suffering the voids of our laws,” said Cuban leader Miguel DÃaz-Canel.
There are protests, however, from some entities, such as the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba, which warned that the new code would make room for the so-called “gender ideology”. DÃaz-Canel, in a TV broadcast last Thursday (22), responded to the criticism. “What the Code does is protect the kind of family that people of doctrine and faith stand for, but also other kinds of families.”
In the campaign for the approval of the code, the regime has used TV, radio and newspapers – all state-owned. There are also abundant posters around the cities and the promotion of the hashtags #YoVotoSi and #CodigoSi.
The “no” campaign is restricted to social networks. Under the hashtag #YoVotoNo there are demonstrations by people asking the regime to deal with other issues, such as the shortage of food and medicine – which has been punishing the island even more since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
“If you can’t choose your president, why expose your children to a family code written by someone you didn’t vote for?” asks Yotuel Romero, former vocalist of the band Orishas and co-author of the song “Patria y Vida”. which became an anthem in the demonstrations against the 2021 regime.
Among those defending the new law is Mariela Castro, daughter of Raúl Castro, who led the island for ten years, and an advocate for the rights of the LGBT community. “We are on the verge of making an unprecedented revolutionary leap in terms of family law,” she says. “The code expands, contributes and provides a broad guarantee of rights to all people and all families. It collaborates to further democratize relationships.”
In the early years of the Cuban Revolution, gays were arrested and fired, and thousands were forced into exile. Fidel Castro, who commanded the historic change and the island for decades, said in 1965 that “a homosexual will never be able to meet the conditions and requirements of the conduct of a true revolutionary.”
“Cuba was for a long time a homophobic and transphobic state. We don’t just need the approval of equal marriage, but also an apology and a policy of reparation to those who suffered from this policy of persecution”, says activist Daniel Triana.
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