Rome: An Italian, recognising a same-sex marriage contracted overseas, has authorised two men to have their union recorded in the local civil registry.
The court in Grosseto in Tuscany Wednesday ordered the city council to list the couple, aged 68 and 57, who had their wedding in New York in 2012, as married, ANSA news agency reported Thursday.
The ruling was immediately hailed by gay rights campaigners as historic.
Earlier, local civil registry turned down the couple’s request on grounds that two people of the same sex cannot be married under Italian law.
Judge Paolo Cesare Ottati upheld their appeal Wednesday, arguing that the Italian civil code “contains no reference to sex in relation to the requisites” for marriage and that there is “no impediment to the registration of a marriage contracted abroad”.