Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino said
Friday 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.
On Friday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called Marino
and reportedly praised his "strong and courageous stance",
telling him to "keep going my friend, keep fighting the good
fight".
De Blasio, a liberal Democrat, met with Marino, who is from
the ruling Democratic Party (PD), during a visit to Rome in
July, when he was on his way to visit his family's ancestral
home on the island of Capri.
"I feel at home," De Blasio enthused at the time. "I feel
close to my family. Mayor Marino and I hit it off right away".
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