Cuba publish draft fay that opens door to gay marriage | Rters

Contents:

• CUBA PUBLISH DRAFT FAY THAT OPENS DOOR TO GAY MARRIAGE

CUBA PUBLISH DRAFT FAY THAT OPENS DOOR TO GAY MARRIAGE

Lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr (LGBT) rights Cuba signifintly advanced the 21st century. Pri paras Havana are held every May, to ci wh the Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, wh attendance havg grown every year.

Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, A man sts his ballot on Sunday HavanaCuba has voted to legalise same-sex marriage a natnal two-thirds of the populatn voted to approve reforms a new Fay Co, which will also allow surrogate pregnanci and give gay upl the right to adopt marks a big moment for Cuba, which saw gay people persecuted and sent to work mps the 1960s and 70s.

The law required 50% of voters' approval to be reforms were the culmatn of efforts by gay rights activists Cuba.

Official attus towards homosexualy on the Communist-n island have changed over the past s, partly thanks to the efforts of former lear Raúl Castro's dghter the early part of munist lear Fil Castro's le after the 1959 revolutn, homosexual men and women were sent to work mps for supposed "re-tn". Outsi of the vlatns, historians regard the 1960s as an even more reprsive for one Cuban muny particular: the untry’s homosexual populatn.

Even pre-Revolutnary Cuba, the island’s society relegated the homosexual muny to the few LGBT-iendly bars Cuban ci. Moreover, strict laws crimalized homosexualy and targeted gay men particular for harassment. Homosexualy Cuba Unr Castro.

Many gay men were favor of the Revolutn and even supported longtime Cuban Print Fil Castro. Castro and the other leadg revolutnari nsired homosexualy a v product of palism, which had to be rooted out entirely om society.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, gay men were routely imprisoned for solicg sex public lotns, ernment workers lost their jobs bee of their homosexualy, and homosexual artists were censored. From 1965 to 1968, openly homosexual men were round up and rcerated UMAP (Milary Uns to Aid Productn) mps signed to turn them to the heterosexual ial.

6 Though Castro himself has nied that they were forced labor mps, he recently acknowledged that gay men were mistreated certa mps. 7 In another se of historic persecutn, the famo Mariel Boat Lift of 1980, the Castro regime expelled thoands of homosexual Cubans he nsired among other “unsirabl.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Havana’s polici toward s LGBT muny began to change as munist lears around the world began to lean toward a more tolerant policy regardg homosexualy. 9 For example, 1977 the Cuban Natnal Center for Sex Edutn (CENESEX) was found by the Cuban Women’s Feratn, which “enuraged a more enlightened outlook on homosexualy and started to unrme tradnal sexual prejudic and taboos. In 1979 the Cuban ernment fally removed homosexual acts among nsentg adults om the Penal Co as a crimal offense.

However, as wh most untri’ early polici regardg homosexualy, chang practice have occurred gradually. Dpe the legislative reforms, the ernment ntued to prohib “ostentat displays of homosexualy” along wh “homosexual acts public plac. Some have argued that another explanatn for Havana’s homosexual polici is that Cuba’s ntued pennce on the Soviet Unn for tra and assistance led to a Stalist-style tolerance of homosexualy throughout the earlier part of the .

In 1986 however, a watershed shift agast homophobia occurred Cuba. 14 The annulment of many of the remag laws the Penal Co that had prohibed homosexual nduct allowed thori to release those who had been prevly imprisoned for homosexual activy.

15 Durg this perd, the Cuban thori began to show greater tolerance toward homosexualy orr to enforce safe sex and to ga polil support for the regime om the LGBT muny and om cril ternatnal observers. The Cuban ernment began to produce films and documentari nmng discrimatn agast homosexualy, and the medil muny Cuba began to scribe homosexualy as a natural mory ndn rather than a perverse choice.