Same-Sex Couple Sue Slovakia Over Refusal to Register Their Marriage

Slovak couple Ivan Novotný and Metod Špaček plan to sue after authorities refused to register their marriage, which they legally entered in Austria in 2020. They applied for recognition in Slovakia last December and received a rejection letter from Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok. Novotný says the registry office, not the minister, should have decided. The dispute follows an EU court ruling requiring member states to recognize same-sex marriages performed in another member state. Slovakia’s government cites its constitutional definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.