Europe

Romania: court again postpones ruling on same-sex marriage

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Clay Hamilton, left, and Adrian Coman, a US-Romanian gay couple who got married in Belgium and seek legal recognition of their status in Romania smile during an interview with the Associated Press in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, July 22, 2016. Commentators predict the court, scheduled to rule Tuesday on the marriage of U.S. graphic designer Claibourn Robert Hamilton and Romanian human rights activist Adrian Coman, will vote against the motion, amid opposition from the influential Romanian Orthodox Church and public disapproval of same-sex relationships.(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Wednesday, July 20, 2016., file picture Clay Hamilton, left, and Adrian Coman, a US-Romania a gay couple who got married in Belgium and seek legal recognition of their status in Romania hold hands in Bucharest, Romania.Commentators predict the court, scheduled to rule Tuesday on the marriage of U.S. graphic designer Claibourn Robert Hamilton and Romanian human rights activist Adrian Coman, will vote against the motion, amid opposition from the influential Romanian Orthodox Church and public disapproval of same-sex relationships. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File) (The Associated Press)

Romania's Constitutional Court has again postponed ruling on a petition to recognize the same-sex marriage of a U.S. citizen and a Romanian man.

Romania currently does not recognize same-sex marriages or relationships amid opposition from the conservative Romanian Orthodox Church.

Tuesday's delay is the second time the court has put off ruling on the marriage of Claibourn Robert Hamilton, an American graphic designer and Adrian Coman, a rights activist.

The couple lives in the U.S. and launched a legal fight to get their marriage recognized in Romania in 2012.

The nine-member court rescheduled the men's case for Oct. 27. In July, it also postponed a ruling, saying it needed more time to digest the arguments.

Same-sex relationships are a sensitive issue in Romania, which only decriminalized homosexuality in 2001.