Argentine Gay Couple Become 1st to Marry

(Sky News) - Two Argentine men have defied national law to wed in Latin America's first same-sex marriage.

The couple were helped by a provincial governor who ignored a court ruling earlier this month which blocked their plans for marriage.

Alex Freyre, 39, and Jose Maria Di Bello, 41, were married in the southern Argentine city of Ushuaia in a small ceremony.

"We're extremely excited and happy about what this means for all gays and lesbians in Argentina," Di Bello said.

"We weren't going to give up until we married," Freyre said.

The men were granted a marriage licence by a judge in Buenos Aires in November which allowed the couple to wed in the capital.

It contradicts the national policy which continues to define marriage as between a man and a woman.

Freyre and Di Bello, who are both HIV positive, had planned to marry on Dec.1 for World Aids Day but a federal judge overturned the wedding decision and ordered it suspended.

The couple traveled to Ushuaia in the province of Tierra del Fuego where they were given residency by the governor, who upheld the previous decision allowing them to marry.

Argentina became the first Latin American country to allow civil unions by same-sex couples in 2002. The unions grant homosexual couples some legal marital rights, but exclude others, including the right to adopt.

Read more about gay marriage in Argentina .