MOSCOW, Oct 6 — A Russian court today threw out a request by a lesbian couple to force a registry office to marry them, a court spokeswoman said.
Irina Fet and Irina Shipitko had asked the Tverskoi district court to overrule a decision by a registry office which refused to endorse their marriage in May. It quoted Russian laws which describes a marriage as a “union between a woman and a man”.
“The judge refused their request,” spokeswoman Alexandra Berezina said without giving further details.
Although post-Soviet Russia no longer prosecutes homosexuals as criminals and many high-profile Russians manifest their same-sex alliances, gays and lesbians remain public outcasts.
In the past few years, Moscow authorities have consistently banned gay parades, describing them as an offence and a threat to public order.
A bid by Fet and Shipitko to register their marriage, the latest in a string of similar failed attempts, has been aimed at changing public perception of homosexuality in Russia.
The couple told reporters after the court trial they were planning to marry in Canada on October. 23. It was not clear if they were planning to appeal against the today’s ruling in a higher court. — Reuters
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