Russia Refuses to Let Gay Couple Exchange Wedding Vows

The couple dressed for the ceremony in black leather jackets. They carried matching pink rose bouquets. Their close friends and about 50 journalists were present to see them wed. Despite all the careful preparations, they never did.

The reason: Both partners were men, and Russia’s law was not ready to let them marry.

American artist Robert Filippini and Russian journalist Yaroslav Mogutin hoped Tuesday to be the first gay men to be married in an officially sanctioned Russian ceremony. Although they were allowed to file all the necessary paperwork to arrange the wedding, including forms from the U.S. Embassy preregistering the marriage, they were turned down flat by a Russian justice of the peace.

“Our law has an article saying that a wedding is a voluntary union between a man and a woman,” explained Karmen A. Bruyeva, director of Moscow’s Wedding Palace No. 4.

“I am really sorry, but I cannot register your union,” she told the frustrated couple.

Although some Russians are now being married in church, the vast majority are married in civil ceremonies in “wedding palaces.”

Although Filippini and Mogutin did not marry, they say they succeeded in taking Russia’s nascent gay rights movement a step forward. “Any action that is pro-gay is good for that movement,” said Filippini. “We hope that this will be the beginning of a genesis.”

Filippini, a 41-year-old native New Yorker who has lived here two years, and Mogutin, 20, met 18 months ago. They have lived together for three months. Filippini proposed marriage on Valentine’s Day, after realizing that “we have this honeymoon life with each other.”

Although the idea of a gay wedding raises eyebrows in today’s Russia, the notion would have carried a jail term in Soviet days, when homosexuality was illegal. The infamous Article 121.1 of the criminal code stated that “sexual relations between men are punishable by prison terms up to five years.”

Although Article 121.1 was repealed by the Russian Parliament last May, gay activists here say they still face discrimination and homophobia.

The couple said they will continue their effort to wed by appealing the Russian marriage laws.

They could fight for the right to be married in America-- where official gay marriages are also unsanctioned, although some cities recognize domestic partnership agreements. But they have decided to pursue their battle in Russia.

“We live here in Russia now, and we plan to continue living in Russia,” Filippini explained. “We hope America will follow Russia’s lead.”