On Tuesday, May 26, 2020, President of Costa Rica Alvarado Quesada tweeted, “Today, Costa Rica officially recognizes same-sex marriage. Today we celebrate liberty, equality and our democratic institutions. May empathy and love be the compass that guide us forward and allow us to move forward and build a country that has room for everyone,” according to a CNN translation from Spanish.
In Aug. 2018, Costa Rica’s Constitutional Court ruled that the country’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional and gave the legislature 18 months to legalize gay marriage before the ruling would automatically legalize same-sex marriage. That decision followed the Jan. 2018 Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling that gay marriages should be recognized.
Costa Rica is the first Central American country to legalize same-sex marriage.