Cubans approve homosexual marriage by massive margin in referendum By Reuters

By Marc Frank

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cubans accredited homosexual marriage and adoption overwhelmingly in a Sunday referendum backed by the federal government that additionally boosted rights for ladies, the nationwide election fee mentioned on Monday.

Greater than 3.9 million voters voted to ratify the code (66.9%), whereas 1.95 million opposed ratification (33%), Alina Balseiro Gutierrez, president of the fee, mentioned on state-run tv on Monday.

“Justice has been carried out,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote in a tweet.

“It’s paying off a debt with a number of generations of Cuban women and men, whose household tasks have been ready for this regulation for years,” he mentioned.

The 100-page “household code” legalizes same-sex marriage and civil unions, permits same-sex {couples} to undertake kids, and promotes equal sharing of home rights and duties between women and men.

Preliminary outcomes from the electoral fee confirmed 74% of 8.4 million Cubans eligible to vote participated within the Sunday referendum.

There are not any unbiased observers of Cuban elections, though residents could observe the rely at their precincts. Scattered native studies of district counts on social media appeared to tally with the official outcomes.

The announcement of the outcomes got here as Diaz-Canel presided over an emergency assembly because the Caribbean island ready for Hurricane Ian to move over its western tip early on Tuesday.

Official Twitter (NYSE:) accounts confirmed the room erupting in applause and the president leaning again and smiling on the information. The Cuban president led the marketing campaign for the adoption of the code.

By Cuban requirements Sunday’s turnout was comparatively modest, and a 33% ‘no’ vote comparatively massive within the communist-run nation, the place earlier referendums have seen the federal government place receiving close to unanimous approval.

The dissent is a sign of each how Cuba is altering and the present dire financial circumstances, which have seen lengthy energy outages and features for meals, medication and gas.

Sunday’s vote was additionally the primary of its sort since most residents have had entry to the web, which has let dissenting views unfold extra broadly. (This story has been up to date to appropriate the reference to the referendum being the primary since cell web was legalized within the closing paragraph)