Costa Rica Approves Same-Sex Marriage

Today, May 26^th, Costa Rica became the first country in Central America to approve same-sex marriage.

The president of costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, announced the decision on Twitter: “The liberty, the equality, and the Democratic institutions. Let love and empathy be the compass that allows us to move forward, and build a country fit for everybody”.

The decision came after an opinion from the Inter-American Human Rights Court in 2018, in which, petitioned by Costa Rica, determined that a homosexual couple has the same marriage rights as a heterosexual couple.

The Supreme Court of Justice declared the norm of the Family Code, which bans marriage between people of the same sex, unconstitutional. The supreme judicial law imposed a deadline of 18 months to the Legislative Power to elaborate a new norm. In the case that Congress did not legislate on the topic, the marriage between same-sex couples would become automatically legal at the end of the deadline: May 26^th.

Costa Rica joined a group of almost 30 countries in the world where same-sex marriage is legal.

Photo: Reuters