The Cour de Cassation, the highest French appeals court, has decided to allow the marriage of a Moroccan-French gay couple in spite of current legislation barring binational unions. Though gay marriage was legalized in France in 2013, the French government made agreements with 11 other nations saying that France would block marriages for binational couples in which the non-French partner's country of origin did not recognize gay marriage.
Dominique and Mohammed, who have asked to have their last names withheld, were initially denied a marriage license in Chambery, a city in the southeastern region of France. Two other courts, however, issued rulings arguing the opposite, which brought the couple's case to the Cour de Cassation.
The Cour de Cassation cited a specific section of France's agreement with Morocco that allows either country to ignore one another's laws should the other country's law be "obviously incompatible with public order.” In this instance the Cour de Cassation interpreted marriage as a fundamental right necessary to the public order, overriding Morocco's legal stance on gay marriage for gays living in France.