Raul Castro Again Ignores the Issue of Gay Marriage / Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada #Cuba

’I can’t but regret the failure of the legislative program’, with respect to the new Family Code, wrote the official blogger Francisco Rodríguez Cruz.

The seventh legislature of the National Assembly of People’s Power will conclude on December 13 without the approving the draft law on homosexual unions, a defeat against Mariela Castro Espin by the conservative forces led by her father, Raul Castro.

The gay activist Francisco Rodríguez Cruz, who works from within the regime for gay rights, said in his blog that the current term ends “without any public discussion of the draft law of the Family Code, which should contain a legal protection for the rights of gay couples in Cuba. ”

According to the journalist, usually well informed on these matters, the issue now “must wait” for the “next general election and the formation of a new legislative body” in February 2013.

The second and last annual meeting of the single-party Assembly “will analyze” the Economic Plan and State Budget for 2013, as well as “the progress of the implementation process of The Economic and Social Guidelines of the Party and the Revolution.”

“I can’t but lament this failure to complete the personal legislative agenda” regarding the new Family Code, Cruz Rodriguez wrote.

The activist said the country not only needs to “improve its economic performance”, but also “evolve” in social policy, “to achieve a socialism that is increasingly participatory, inclusive and democratic.”

Mariela Castro, director of the National Center for Sex Education, told Rodriguez Cruz, according to his blog, that “the Cuban people are more prepared to make Revolutionary changes than we can imagine.”

The general’s daughter illustrated her position with the “example” of “the humble people of Caibarién, who recently chose Adela, a person who identifies as transgender, as their delegate to the Municipal People’s Power.”

The debate over gay marriage would be just a formality, since the National Assembly unanimously adopts the decisions of the Communist Party.

December 7 2012