Marriage as a hustle: The evolution of property law and the arrival of same-sex marriage in Cuba

Abstract

This paper tells the coinciding stories of same-sex marriage's arrival in Cuba and the evolution of Cuban property law. It argues that greater privatization in the Cuban system, including access to real estate ownership and small-scale entrepreneurship, contributed to (did not solely determine) the advent of same-sex marriage even though it was, practically speaking, wholly unnecessary to the goal of equalizing same-sex couples with regard to property rights. Same-sex marriage nonetheless scaled the priority list for advancing the interests of gays and lesbians in Cubans due, at least in part, to the discursive entwinement of marriage and property allocation including the “common sense” assumption that marriage is a regime of material benefits access to which determines whether gays and lesbians are being treated equally.