BY MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN AND ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAVANA — 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 popular rejection of 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 has 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 constitutional commission is headed by Communist Party head and former president Raul Castro.
His daughter, Mariela Castro, is a lawmaker known as Cuba’s highestprofile advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual rights. Her advocacy has helped rehabilitate Cuba’s international image on LGBTQ rights after the Castro-led communist government sent gay men to work camps in the 1960s. 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 constitutional Article 68 promoting gay marriage during public consultations on the draft constitution throughout the year.
Cuba’s rapidly growing evangelical churches also staked out positions against the article, increasing pressure on a government unused to public pushback.
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 public debate or insight into the working of the ruling Communist Party.