Cuba has recognized a baby has two moms for the first time

Two moms have won their battle in Cuba to register themselves as mothers to their newborn son on his birth certificate.

Dachelys Valdés Moreno and Hope Bastian used an assisted reproduction service in Florida because they weren’t able to do so in Cuba.

But when they returned from Florida with their son Paulo, born on 19 May 2019, they faced a battle to register themselves as his parents.

Bastian is originally from Florida but her partner Moreno is Cuban. Usually the process to register a Cuban citizen born outside the country is simple enough – for heterosexuals.

But as a same-sex couple they faced a barrier. Cuba still does not recognize same-sex marriage or partnerships.

So the new family had to wait for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice to find a way to record Paulo’s mothers on the birth certificate and in the Registry of the Civil Status of Acts and Facts of Cubans Abroad.

But now, around a year later, Paulo is registered.

Bastian said: ‘It is a very important step because it is the first time that the Cuban State recognizes that there can be children with two mothers.

‘Today the state recognizes that Cuban families have many different ways of configuring themselves, that they are legitimate and legal.’

Reflecting modern family life

In the end the Ministry of Justice chose to issue a birth certificate with a ‘mother and mother’ instead of a ‘mother and father’. As such, it now reflects Paulo’s birth certificate from the Florida hospital where he was born.

The ministry apparently said that parenthood in Cuban law was ‘based on biology and our laws do not recognize a child of two mothers’.

However, officials admitted ‘Cuban Civil Registry Law dates back more than 30 years’. Therefore, they said it doesn’t match ‘current family dynamics’.

As a result, the ministry’s decision appears to confirm that the Cuban Constitution protects people’s right to have a family without discrimination.

Cuba’s LGBT+ past and hopes for the future

Today, LGBT+ Cubans have secured some rights and protections. These include the right to change gender, an equal age of consent and anti-discrimination laws.

However, it wasn’t always like that.

After Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, he sent 25,000 gay men deemed unfit for military service to labor camps. He subsequently apologized for this abuse in 2010.

Moreover, until 1993, the Cuban government quarantined people with HIV and AIDS in state-run sanitaria.

Despite this past, there is hope for the future.

At the end of May a politician started a renewed campaign for marriage equality.

Cuba’s Catholic Church has battled efforts to introduce equal marriage. However, current President Miguel Díaz-Canel is a supporter. Moreover, a 2019 poll claimed 63% of Cubans favor legalizing same-sex marriage, while only 37% are opposed.