Cubans approved the new Family Code in a referendum that opens the doors to same-sex marriage, adoption by same-sex couples and redefines the rights of children and grandparents, authorities reported, although the percentage of rejection it was unusually strong.
The president of the National Electoral Council, Alina Balseiro Gutiérrez, reported that according to the preliminary results, 66.87% of the valid votes -3,936,790- said “Yes” to the new legislation while 33.13% -1,900,090- voted “No”. ”. She said that 74% of the little more than eight million islanders called on the day went to the polls.
It is a new norm of more than 400 articles that touches for the first time the issue of the rights of homosexual couples and adoption, which has generated controversy among Cubans.
Other details
It also contains other novel points such as the legalization of “solidarity gestation” -which would allow a woman to have a child for another non-profit person-, the expansion of the rights of grandparents to guarantee their communication or give them “parental responsibility ” of their grandchildren, something considered vital in Cuba where up to four generations usually live together in the same home and emigration means that many minors are raised by the elderly.
The referendum took place in the midst of the deepest economic crisis in decades in the communist nation, where the main daily concern among its more than 11 million inhabitants is to overcome food and medicine shortages, in addition to the increasingly constant blackouts.
