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Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Backs Same-Sex Marriage

Castros’ successor says he wants to eliminate discrimination of all kinds.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has backed same-sex marriage and said he wants to eliminate “any form of discrimination” in the country. Díaz-Canel, who succeeded Raúl Castro this April, said in an interview Monday that he wanted to see “marriage between people without any restrictions.” Cuba has historically been hostile to the LGBT community—homosexuals suffered persecution in the decades following the 1959 communist revolution. The country is in the process of updating its constitution, which defines marriage as between “a man and a woman.” A proposal for a new constitution will be subject to a national referendum scheduled for February. Elsewhere in the interview, the president denied that Cuba had anything to do with the mysterious attacks on U.S. diplomatic staff in Havana, some of whom have been left with brain damage.