Two-thirds of Cuban voters approved the country’s new Family Code on Sunday, itself a result of an extensive revisions process in which millions of Cuban citizens participated. The new code ends discrimination against gay couples in marriage and adoption. It also strengthens women’s rights by promoting “equal sharing of domestic rights and responsibilities between men and women.”

Preliminary results show that almost three-quarters of eligible voters participated in the referendum — and even bitter critics of the Cuban regime don’t seem to be suggesting that the results were falsified. The Catholic Church and evangelical churches on the island were strident in their opposition to the code, but they convinced less than a third of the Cuban public. That result is a huge victory for gay rights in a country where extreme and disturbing homophobia was official government policy just a few decades ago.

It also brings Cuban society closer to realizing the core values underlying the socialist project.