Two gay men have been married in Argentina, making them the first homosexual couple to officially marry in Latin America. Alex Freyre and José Maria Di Bello said 'I do' in Ushuaia, the provincial capital of Argentina's southernmost province of Tierra del Fuego.

Governor Fabiana Ríos authorised the wedding after a civil registrar in Buenos Aires had earlier refused to perform the ceremony. Although Argentina's civil code does not recognize same-sex marriages, the Constitution does not prohibit them either. The couple had originally planned a 1 December wedding after a court ruling had ordered civil officials in Buenos Aires to recognize the union, however, on the eve of the wedding, a second judge ruled that the couple must wait for a Supreme Court decision.
 

Governor Ríos is known to be sympathetic to the cause and the couple had recently been to Usuaia, working for the country's anti-discrimination institute, which called the wedding "an historic event".
 

In another first for conservative Latin America, last week Mexico City voted to allow same-sex marriages. Recently, Uruguay passed a raft of liberal measures including approval of a sex change law, as well as civil marriage and adoption by same-sex couples.