Bolivia records first same-sex marriage after legal battle
Bolivia has recorded its first same-sex wedding (Getty Images, stock)
A historic milestone for LGBTQ+ rights has been reached in Bolivia.
Fabiana Banzer and Scarlett Rocha became the first same-sex couple to have a civil marriage recorded in Bolivia on Friday (7 August), after a legal battle that lasted three years and 10 months.
The couple initially applied to marry on 12 October 2022. With legal support from the LGBTQ+ rights organisation IGUAL Bolivia, they challenged the authorities through a lengthy administrative process that ultimately culminated in two constitutional injunctions. Their marriage was finally recognised and legally protected by the Bolivian state.
“Scar and I have been together for more than four years,” Banzer wrote on her Facebook page on 8 August. “It makes me very happy to announce to our family and friends that after a legal fight of three years and 10 months we have finally been able to access civil marriage as two women.”
While this legal victory is historic, it does not mean Bolivia has legalised same-sex marriage nationwide.
Article 63 of Bolivia’s Constitution defines marriage as a union between a woman and a man, meaning same-sex marriage remains outside the country’s general legal framework. Banzer and Rocha’s marriage was authorised through the courts in an individual case rather than through legislative reform. Bolivia therefore remains one of several South American countries, alongside Peru, Paraguay and Venezuela, where same-sex marriage is not generally recognised in law.
Their case does, however, add to an important legal precedent. In 2020, David Aruquipa and Guido Montaño became the first same-sex couple in Bolivia to have their free union registered after successfully challenging the country’s authorities in court. Bolivia’s Plurinational Constitutional Court subsequently upheld their case, and, because of that legal framework, dozens of same-sex unions have since been registered.
Aruquipa described Banzer and Rocha’s marriage as another step in that continuing fight for equality.
“Rather than speaking of a beginning, we should speak of a historical continuity: from the first recognised union to the first civil marriage,” he said in a 9 August Facebook post.
LGBTQ+ and feminist activists have also emphasised the significance of the distinction between a free union and marriage, pointing out that marriage carries a different level of social recognition and legal standing. The transfeminist collective La Pesada Subversiva said Banzer and Rocha’s case involved a difficult legal battle marked by discrimination and mistreatment from authorities in an Instagram post celebrating their marriage on 9 August.
Banzer and Rocha’s marriage has created a new legal milestone and another crack in the barriers facing same-sex couples seeking equal recognition in the country.
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