June 8th

On June 8th, 1901 the first same-sex marriage took place in Spain between Marcela Gracia Ibeas and Elisa Sanchez Loriga. While studying to be a teacher in the Normal School for Teacher Training in A Coruña, she met Elisa Sanchez Loriga. The two women fell in love and began to live together. On June 8, 1901, Elisa adopted a masculine identity (she took the name of Mario, the name of a cousin of hers that had died in a shipwreck) and they were married at the church in A Coruña. Soon it was discovered that they were both women and the couple made newspaper headlines. As a result, they lost their jobs, were excommunicated and an arrest warrant was issued. They fled to Portugal and then to Argentina. Their marriage certificate was never annulled. From 1904 on, the trace of these determined women has been lost.