page_title: Same-sex marriage in Argentina
section_title: Judicial rulings
hierarchical_section_title: Same-sex marriage in Argentina / Same-sex marriage / Judicial rulings
caption_attribution_description: English: A crowd in front of the Argentine National Congress, waiting for the result of the debate on same-sex marriage in Argentina
context_page_description: Same-sex marriage in Argentina has been legal since July 22, 2010.
  Argentina was the first country in Latin America, the second in the Americas, and the second in the Southern Hemisphere to allow same-sex marriage. It was the tenth country worldwide to allow same-sex marriage. In addition, civil unions have been available nationwide since 2015, providing some of the rights of marriage.
context_section_description: On November 12, 2009, a court in Buenos Aires approved the marriage of a same-sex couple, Alex Freyre and José María Bello, ruling that articles 172 and 188 of the Civil Code were unconstitutional. The city Chief of Government, Mauricio Macri, said he would not appeal the ruling, but the marriage was blocked on November 30 by another court, pending review by the Supreme Court. In December 2009, the Governor of Tierra del Fuego Province, Fabiana Ríos, ordered the civil registry office to perform and register their marriage. On December 28, the two men were legally wed in Ushuaia, the provincial capital city, making them the first same-sex couple to marry in Latin America. On April 14, 2010, the marriage was declared null and void, but it technically remained legal because the decision was not communicated to the parties. The married couple said that they would appeal the court's decision if notified. The couple announced their divorce in 2015. Journalist Bruno Bimbi revealed that, although the men were both gay, they were not a couple and only acted as such as part of a plan to champion LGBT rights.
  On March 10, 2010, a judge in Buenos Aires declared a second same-sex marriage, between Damián Bernath and Jorge Esteban Salazar Capón, illegal. On April 16, a third same-sex marriage between two women was annulled by a judge who ruled that the Buenos Aires Civil Registry limited marriage to a man and a woman. Administrative Judge Elena Liberatori later overturned that decision and ruled the marriage between the two women valid, ordering the Civil Registry of Buenos Aires to deliver the marriage certificate to the court.
  Following the first legal same-sex marriage in December 2009, seven other same-sex couples were joined in legal matrimony in Argentina before the national law legalizing same-sex marriage took effect at the end of July 2010. The Supreme Court was hearing several cases concerning the right of same-sex couples to marry. On July 2, 2010, some media reported that the Supreme Court had a prepared ruling concerning María Rachid and Claudia Castro's case that declared articles 172 and 188 of the Civil Code unconstitutional.
caption: Crowd in support of same-sex marriage in Buenos Aires
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