Cuba’s huge leap forward in trans rights – citizens can now legally choose gender without surgery
Cuban Wendy Iriepa (L) who was the first trans woman to get legally married in Cuba in 2011 (Getty)
Cuba has taken a significant step forward in trans rights by approving a law that allows individuals to self-declare their gender without requiring surgery.
The law, approved earlier this month by The National Assembly of People’s Power, also amends Cuba’s national civil registry, giving legal recognition to common-law partnerships and setting out a process for digitising paper records.
Minister of justice Oscar Silvera Martínez wrote on X/Twitter last week that the law “will allow the country to have a modern civil registry,” including “the issuance of digital documents with full validity and efficiency”.
La nueva Ley aprobada por @AsambleaCuba permitirá al país tener un Registro Civil moderno, gestionado con los avances de la #TransformaciónDigital, la Inteligencia Artificial, y la emisión de documentos digitales con plena validez y eficacia. #CubaLegisla #PoderPopular pic.twitter.com/dF1Ezdq4RL
— Oscar Silvera Martínez (@OscarCubaMinjus) July 18, 2025
The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, also took to X, where he praised a separate new law which establishes protections for youngsters.
En este día felicitamos a las niñas y los niños, con mucha alegría y esperanza.
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) July 20, 2025
Por ellos nos desvelamos, porque llevan en sí la inocencia, la capacidad de querer con pureza, y el futuro de la Patria. pic.twitter.com/WAwjTtZiSU
The latest move in trans rights for Cubans marks one of the most significant LGBTQ+ legal reforms since 2022, when citizens approved a broad family law code that ushered in same-sex marriage and other LGBTQ+-inclusive measures, including the right to adopt children.
Minister of foreign affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla welcomed the family code, saying: “Our people opted for a revolutionary, uplifting law that drives us to achieve social justice for which we work every day. Today, we are a better country with more rights.”
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