Jose Maria Di Bello, left, and Alex Freyre were going to marry on World AIDS Day until a national judge blocked the wedding. (Natacha Pisarenko/Associated Press)

Two men in Buenos Aires vowed to proceed with their wedding on Tuesday, despite a national judge's attempt to block the ceremony.

Jose Maria Di Bello and Alex Freyre were set to be the first gay men to marry in Latin America, before National Judge Marta Gomez Alsina ordered the wedding blocked until the case could be reviewed before the Supreme Court a day before the event.

Alsina's ruling reversed a city court decision in November allowing the wedding to go forward.

The couple had been denied a marriage license last April, but took the matter to court. The city court later ruled the denial was unconstitutional and Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri said he would not appeal the decision.

Di Bello and Freyre — a couple of five years — are determined to marry and said they would show up at the civil registry anyway.

"I see old couples walking down the street together and I want that to be us," Di Bello, 41, said. "I want to be able to turn to him when I'm old and wrinkly and call him my husband."

The couple purposely chose Tuesday for their wedding because it is World Aids Day. Di Bello and Freyre — both HIV positive — met at an HIV awareness conference and both work for health organizations.

"We are in love and excited about getting married, but we can't really think about the wedding party, the wedding night, or the honeymoon," Freyre, 39, said. "We are activists, and how can we show our faces if we forget about the rights we are representing?"

Pent-up demand

Dozens of other gay couples are now trying the same legal route to win the right to marry.

Legislation that would legalize gay marriage was introduced in Congress in October but it has stalled without a vote.

Seven countries in the world allow gay marriages: Canada, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium. U.S. states that permit same-sex marriage are Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and New Hampshire.

In 2002, Buenos Aires became the first Latin American city to legalize same-sex civil unions. Four other Argentine cities later followed suit, and such unions also now are recognized in Mexico City and some Mexican and Brazilian states. Uruguay alone has legalized civil unions nationwide.

While Buenos Aires is reputed for being gay friendly, many rights are still exclusive to heterosexual married couples, such as the right to adopt children in the name of both parents and for spouses to be included in insurance policies.

There still remains opposition to gay marriage in Argentina, particularly from the Roman Catholic Church which continues to strongly influence state affairs. Soon after Macri announced he would not appeal the city judge's decision to permit Di Bello and Freyre to marry, Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio issued a statement expressing his disapproval.

With files from The Associated Press