The Lazio Regional
Administrative Court (TAR) on Tuesday denied a plea by several
gay couples asking it to suspend the Rome city prefect's
annulment of the transcriptions of their marriages, which had
been contracted abroad, in city hall.
Their petition was filed as a precaution, before they
appealed the 16 annulments.
The appeal was filed based on the fact that "the prefect's
act was...marred by incompetence and excess of power...as well
as blatantly null, illegitimate, and erroneous," the mayor's
office said.
Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino said last Friday that he would
not obey the city prefect's order to scrub the recent
transcription of foreign gay marriages.
"We do not accept the prefect's order to cancel the
transcriptions that have already been logged," he said of his
purely symbolic move.
Marino in his defiance of the interior minister joins a
number of mayors across Italy, including those of Milan,
Bologna, Udine and Grosseto.
He walked into contested, administrative no-man's land
earlier this month when he transcribed 16 same-sex marriages
legally performed abroad at the Rome prefecture.
In Italy, civil unions between same-sex partners are not
yet nationally recognized, much less marriage, which is defined
as a union between a man and a woman. However the recognition of
same-sex marriages performed abroad, especially in countries
with which Italy is bound by treaties, the question is subject
to debate.
Marino has received support from gay activists and lawyers
of couples whose marriages were transcribed, but the Catholic
political movement Italia Cristiana has registered a
formal complaint against Marino for contravening State law. The
movement also called for the centre-left politician to be
removed from his post.
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