LGBTQ couples in Peru took part in a symbolic wedding ceremony on Friday in an annual event aimed at calling for marriage equality in the conservative South American nation. Eleven couples exchanged vows at a park in the Miraflores district of Lima in a ceremony to mark Valentine’s Day called “Love does not discriminate.” Peru, a majority-Catholic country, is one of just a handful of nations in Latin America to not have at least partially recognised same-sex unions. “We are here more than anything for a symbolic marriage,” said Juan Carlos Martinez, who took part in the ceremony hosted by the LGBTQ community along with his partner. “It is like a protest to the Peruvian state because it is really time for the country to have a civil union marriage which we, as Peruvians, really deserve and have the right to receive.”