Cuba’s president, Miguel Diaz-Canel has spoken in favour of the legalisation of same-sex marriage on TV.
Speaking on TV Telesur he said that “the approach of recognizing marriage between two people, without limitations, responds to a problem of eliminating all types of discrimination in society.”
He then added: “We’ve been going through a massive thought evolution and many taboos have been broken.”
Back in July, Cuba approved a new constitution. It was reported that the definition of marriage will be redefined to a “voluntary and consensual union between two people without distinction of sex.”
Although the new constitution didn’t legalise same-sex marriage outright, it did make it easier for future legislative or legal processes to advance.
One of the main reasons that these changes came about is because of the work of Mariela Castro, the daughter of the country’s former leader, Raúl Castro.
During the Days against Homophobia and Transphobia in Cuba, she confirmed that she would push for the measures to be adopted when the country began reforming its constitution.
Mariela has proven herself to be a major ally to the LGBTQ community in Cuba. Back in 2015, she attracted controversy from conservatives when she officiated a ceremonial same-sex wedding in the country.
Speaking at the time, she denied that she was seeking political points, instead saying: “Same sex marriage is already legal in Argentina and Uruguay and in Mexico City. And we’ve always celebrated their achievements.
“So we’re not interested in being the first. For us, it’s just about achieving it in the first place.”
Many nations around Cuba have legalised same-sex marriage like Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia. And back in January, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that 20 other countries in the region needed to do the same.