Refusal to grant residence permit to gay couple on family grounds was unjustified discrimination

Press release issued by the Registrar of the Court in Chamber judgment in the case of Taddeucci and McCall v. Italy (application no. 51362/09). The case concerned a refusal by the Italian authorities to grant a residence permit to a gay couple on family grounds. The applicants, Roberto Taddeucci and Douglas McCall, are Italian and New Zealand nationals, born in 1965 and 1958. They are a homosexual couple and live in Amsterdam. They complain of discrimination based on their sexual orientation. In deciding to treat homosexual couples in the same way as heterosexual couples without any spousal status, the State had breached the applicants' right not to be subjected to discrimination based on sexual orientation in the enjoyment of their rights under Article 8 of the Convention.