CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM
The importance of families
The definition in the draft Constitution of marriage as a “union between two people” has been one of the most debated issues during the popular consultation process. Dr. Ana María Álvarez-Tabío Albo spoke to Granma regarding the arguments that support this decision

Author: Yudy Castro Morales | internet@granma.cu
october 9, 2018 12:10:42 

Photo: Juvenal Balán
Is it advisable to speak about “the family” or rather “families”? Would it be valid to simply recognize “the family,” whatever its composition, or should we assume the plural as a blanket term to cover all the multiple family constructions that exist today?
Such questions fuelled a dialogue with Dr. Ana María Álvarez-Tabío Albo, professor at the University of Havana’s Law School, who prefers to talk about the family in the singular, “regardless of the way one chooses to organize it.” As such, she considers “the use of the plural (families) in the draft Constitution unnecessary.”
Dr. Álvarez-Tabío questions giving priority to “the institution of marriage by expressly mentioning it as a protected institution, among so many other ways in which a family can be organized.”
Specifically on marriage, Article 68 of the draft Constitution incorporates a remarkable change: the requirement that the two individuals who decide to enter matrimony must be of a different sex is eliminated; and maintained is the already achieved principle of equality between spouses in their rights to the personal and economic effects that derive from the legal/conjugal relationship.
Undoubtedly, according to professor Álvarez-Tabío, this has been “one of the most debated issues; however, without diminishing its importance, it must be awarded the attention it rightly deserves, without overlooking other topics, as more important, that affect us all as citizens.”
She adds that views on this change have been polarized into two main groups: “One which is ‘scandalized’ at the prospect of marriage between people of the same sex; and another that understands that equality has no distinctions based on personal reasons or circumstances of any kind.”

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