When Miguel Díaz-Canel was appointed president in 2018, putting an end to Cuba’s six-decade-long Castro Era, it came as an inflection point for the island. Mr. Díaz-Canel opened a path for liberal economic reforms that eventually ended Cuba’s dual currency scheme, allowed small and medium-sized private companies to operate, and even considered “adjusting communism to the global market.”
Changes came on the social front, too, as the traditionally conservative country began creating a more tolerant Cuba for LGBTQIA+ people — in the past frowned upon and persecuted by the ruling Communist Party. It even toyed with the idea of legalizing same-sex marriage during a proposal for constitutional reform in 2018, but the country stopped short.
The original draft of the reform proposal included an article redefining matrimony in Cuba as “the union between two people,” instead of between a man and a woman. After much discussion, the provision was scrapped from a subsequent draft, sparking protests from civil society.
Indeed, one of the...
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