Cuba's National Assembly on Sunday
approved a draft constitution that would allow same-sex marriage on
the island.
The draft constitution will be put to a
popular consultation later this year. The final draft must be
approved in a national referendum.
Deputy Mariela Castro, the daughter of
Communist Party chief Raul Castro and the head of Cuba's National
Center for Sex Education, applauded passage.
“With this proposal for
constitutional regulation, Cuba puts itself among the world's leading
countries in terms of recognizing and guaranteeing human rights,”
she said.
Many gay men were sent to labor camps
during the early years of Fidel Castro's revolution.
NBC
News reported that churches are working to defeat the proposal,
plastering posters in neighborhoods that read, “I am in favor of
the original design – the family as God created it.”