Italy: Court overturns ruling recognising one same-sex marriage
An Italian court has overturned a ruling ordering the recognition of one same-sex couple’s marriage.
In June this year, Judge Paolo Cesare Otatti ordered Grosseto in Tuscany to begin to recognise the union of Joseph Chigiotti and Stefano Bucci – who married in New York in 2012.
The court ruled at the time that there was no reason that the couple’s marriage, or any marriage from a country where same-sex marriage is legal, should not be recognised.
However, according to AFP the decision was overturned today by the Court of Appeal in Florence, due to a problem of “standings”.
The legal problem does not refer to the merits that the case was initially judged on – but takes issue with the fact it was filed against the County, instead of the city’s Mayor.
The appeals court overturned the earlier ruling, stopping recognition of the couple’s marriage. The case has now been remanded back to the District Court of Grosseto.
Italy is home to a large Catholic population, and lags behind other European countries on LGBT rights, with gay couples having no legal recognition, rights to adopt, and limited protection from discrimination.
However, rights are beginning to filter in, with the city of Bologna beginning recognition of overseas same-sex marriages earlier this month.
A lesbian couple in Italy recently became the first to be allowed to adopt a child, after a court ruled they could not be stopped from doing so.
