Cuba Eliminates Language About Same-Sex Marriage From Draft of New Constitution

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/world/americas/cuba-gay-marriage-constitution.html

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Cuba’s government said Tuesday that language promoting the legalization of gay marriage will be removed from the draft of a new Constitution after widespread pushback against the idea.

Gay rights advocates had proposed eliminating the description of marriage as a union of a man and woman, changing it to the union of “two people” with “absolutely equal rights and obligations.”

That change drew protests from evangelical churches and ordinary citizens in months of public meetings on the new Constitution.

Cuba’s National Assembly announced on Twitter that a powerful commission responsible for revising the Constitution had proposed eliminating the language from the new charter “as a way of respecting all opinions.”

The Constitution would instead be silent on the issue, leaving open the possibility of a future legalization without specifically promoting it.

The commission is headed by Raúl Castro, the Communist Party’s head and former president.

His daughter, Mariela Castro, is a lawmaker known as Cuba’s highest-profile advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual rights. Her advocacy has helped rehabilitate the image of L.G.B.T. rights in Cuba, where the Castro-led government sent gay men to work camps in the 1960s, and where widespread persecution continued through the 1970s.

While Havana and some other Cuban cities have flourishing gay communities, anti-homosexual attitudes remain deeply rooted among much of the population. Cubans who ordinarily shy from open criticism of the government spoke out in large numbers against the proposed language promoting gay marriage during public consultations on the draft.

Cuba’s rapidly growing evangelical churches also staked out positions against the article, increasing pressure on a government unused to public criticism.

The new charter is expected to be offered for approval at a public referendum in early 2019.

The dropping of the gay marriage language is the third dramatic reversal this month for a government that for decades has issued most laws and regulations with little open debate or insight into the working of the ruling Communist Party.

The government last week eliminated some of the most disliked sections of new restrictions on entrepreneurs, which were met with widespread public criticism. And tough new limits on artistic expression were delayed after protests and complaints from Cuban artists.

The elimination of gay marriage appears to be the only major change to the draft of the Constitution. State media said that Cubans had made 192,408 comments on the language, with a majority asking to eliminate it.

Commenters also asked the commission to eliminate presidential term and age limits, and allow direct presidential elections. But the draft charter maintains the two-term limit, a maximum age of 65 and the selection of the president by the National Assembly.

Francisco Rodriguez, a Communist Party member and gay blogger, said that eliminating the language about marriage was an acceptable compromise.

“This was a side step,” he said. “It’s a solution. Not ‘between a man and a woman’ or ‘between two people.’ Now is when it all begins.”