Costa Rica has become the first country in Central America to recognise same-sex marriage:
The first same-sex weddings have taken place in Costa Rica, the first Central American country to equalise its marriage legislation.
A lesbian couple became the first to tie the knot in a ceremony that took place just after the new law came into effect at midnight.
The wedding was shown on national TV.
President Carlos Alvarado said the law change meant Costa Rica now recognised the rights lesbian and gay people had always deserved.
As in other countries, this change was made by the courts: in 2018 Costa Rica's Supreme Court implemented a ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and declared provisions prohibiting same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional. They gave the legislature 18 months to fix the law. They didn't, so the ban was abolished.
