Same-Sex Marriage Legalized in Costa Rica, And More Reasons Why Costa Rica Is Awesome

This is part of an ongoing series where we highlight things that we love about Costa Rica.

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Costa Rica has become the first country in Central America to allow same-sex marriage.

This process has been a long time coming – it was back in January 2018 that Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that all of it’s signatory countries (which includes Costa Rica) must grant same-sex couples the same rights as opposite-sex ones. In August 2018, Costa Rica gave themselves 18 months to act. No new laws have been put into effect, but the laws that prohibit same-sex marriage were allowed to expire on Tuesday.

Costa Rica will be the first Central American country to make same-sex unions legal, and in fact, Costa Rica was the driver behind the court even considered the question, raising the issue in 2016.

On it’s own, Costa Rica becoming the first Central American country to legalize same-sex marriage is a great accomplishment, another accolade for a country that already has a lot going for it, including being recognized as a full democracy. But the accomplishment is even more meaningful given the opposition faced.

This topic was a major area of contention in the 2018 Costa Rican presidential election, with the final candidates on opposite sides of the issue. Conservative candidate Fabricio Alvarado Munoz favored removing Costa Rica from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights so as to not be obligated by the ruling. The eventual winner of the election, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, had embraced the ruling, and won the election in a landslide, 60.8 to 39.2 percent.

Also, just this past week, 26 lawmakers tried to delay the ruling for at least another 18 months, arguing that the pandemic, among other issues, has prevented them from properly preparing. However, that delay was shot down, and the first marriage, between a lesbian couple, occurred in the early hours on Tuesday.

Here are a few other stories we’ve seen recently about Costa Rica that we love:

• Pandemic response – Costa Rica has been notable in quickly responding to the pandemic, and keeping the number of cases down across the country. While the pandemic, and the restrictions put in place in the country, has severely hurt our own short-term rentals, we love being associated with a country that takes healthcare seriously. This is a great explainer from the UN about the steps Costa Rica has taken and cultural conditions that allow it to be successful, and more detail from the World Economic Forum.

• Costa Rica was recently invited to join the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an international organization, “at the heart of international co-operation”, whose member countries “work with other countries, organisations and stakeholders worldwide to address the pressing policy challenges of our time”. Costa Rica is the first Central American country to be a part of the group, and signals the country’s desire to be a part of the global community.

• While this article from Daily Mail is pre-pandemic, it is a great reminder of the beauty of the country (the photos are spectacular), and why it is so popular with tourists, with an overview of places to visit, including one of the top places on our list, Santa Teresa.

Keep it up Costa Rica, and we can’t wait to visit again when circumstances allow!