Scarlett Rocha and Fabiana Justiniano only wanted to get married. 🇧🇴
In 2022, they requested a civil marriage in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and the Bolivian state denied it: the law did not recognize two women as wives. Anyone else might have left the matter there. Not them. They enlisted the support of the NGO IGUAL Bolivia and took the case to court, arguing discrimination under the Constitution.
Nearly four years later, in March 2026, a court ruled in their favor. On August 7, they officially got married in Santa Cruz, becoming the first same-sex couple to obtain a valid civil marriage in a country where such a union is still not legal. The first certificate did not even have the correct boxes and registered them as “husband and wife” — an error that the state itself had to correct. 💍✨
