High court to rule on gay marriage dispute

Lars Gårdfeldt and Lars Arnell, who are both priests in the Swedish church, allege discrimination.

“The tax authorities can make an exception for a marriage where one party is under-age but not for homosexuals,” said Lars Gårdfeldt to Svenska Dagbladet.

Skatteverket confirms that it does make exceptions to Swedish law with regard to under-age couples legally married overseas. But only for marriages involving a man and woman.

The Supreme Administrative Court decided on Friday to try the case and rule on whether the Gothenburg couple should be registered as married.

Lars Gårdfeldt called the court’s decision “historic” and hopes that the court’s decision to take up the case will lead to them becoming Sweden’s first officially married same-sex couple.

The couple had previously been rejected by both the county administrative court and the court of appeal.

According to current Swedish law same-sex couples can only register their relationship as a partnership. Due to differences of opinion among the parties within the Alliance government, a proposal to grant same-sex couples the right to register their marriage remains stalled in the Ministry of Justice, reports Svenska Dagbladet.