Poland has started legally recognizing same-sex marriages performed abroad, a shift civil registry offices across the country began implementing this month after years of litigation. It is a real, if narrow, victory: Poland still offers no way for same-sex couples to marry, or even form a civil partnership, on its own soil.
How Poland Got Here
The case traces back to 2019, when a same-sex couple living in Poland, one Polish, one German, tried to have their 2018 German marriage certificate entered into the Polish civil registry and were refused. They took the fight to Poland's Supreme Administrative Court, which referred the matter to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. Last November, the EU court ruled the couple's marriage was valid across all 27 member states and that Poland could recognize it without changing its own marriage laws. Poland's Supreme Administrative Court reaffirmed that decision in March, and the government said in May it would begin recognizing marriages performed elsewhere in the EU.
Reports differ slightly on when the change actually took effect. TVP World, Poland's public broadcaster, reported that registry offices began the transcriptions on Aug. 22. Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, however, marked the change as beginning the following Sunday, Aug. 30, writing online that
Source: Washington Blade
Cover photo: SHOX ART / Pexels
