by Rex Wockner
International News Briefs
A lesbian couple in Moscow filed suit in Tverskoi District Court on June 16 after they were denied a marriage license.
Irina Fedotova-Fet and Irina Shepitko said they will appeal their case up to the European Court of Human Rights, if necessary.
In the meantime, they will fly to Canada and get married there in August, then return home and demand recognition of the marriage.
Moscow Pride founder Nikolai Alekseev, who is a lawyer and is supporting the case, said Russian law requires recognition of all foreign marriages except in cases such as bigamy and incest. Homosexual unions are not among those prohibited, he said.
"It's sort of a loophole in the law that really allows us to fight for this," Alekseev told the Moscow Times.
