This Lesbian Couple Threw a Fabulous Wedding — Even Though They Can’t Legally Marry
A lesbian couple in Albania had an unofficial wedding in the capital city of Tirana to protest the country’s refusal to recognize marriages like theirs.
Alba Ahmetaj and Edlira Mara’s symbolic marriage ceremony took place on the roof of Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj’s office on Sunday, May 19, with the couple’s three-year-old twin daughters in attendance. “Our society is very patriarchal and homophobic,” Ahmetaj said before the ceremony, per Reuters. “This is something that belongs to us. Why should society meddle here?”
Same-sex marriage isn’t legal in Muslim-majority Balkan country, where many queer residents deal with everyday discrimination. According to a 2023 survey from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 51% of Albanians reported experiencing bias due to their LGBTQ+ identity within the 12 months. Overall, 37% of European respondents said the same. Meanwhile, LGBTQ+ Albanians reported some of the highest levels (62%) of hate-motivated harassment within the past 12 months, outpaced only by the Czech Republic and North Macedonia, at 63%.
In February, Ahmetaj and Mara were subjected to death threats while having coffee in a café in Tirana, Albania’s capital and largest city. The couple reportedly received Facebook messages saying that they would be shot by a sniper “in the middle of the forehead” if they visited the establishment again. They also received a barrage of hateful comments after announcing their wedding ceremony on social media, with one commenter proclaiming, “You should burn in hell.”
Nevertheless, Ahmetaj and Mara will continue to advocate until their family is treated equally under Albanian law. They’re currently trying to be recognized as joint parents of their two daughters and told Reuters that they will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France if matters are not resolved domestically.
Currently, the legal and political situation for LGBTQ+ Albanians is extremely mixed. Albania has had a national law barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation since 2010, which was unanimously adopted by its parliament. Meanwhile, the country has made some progress in the annual Rainbow Europe index, which ranks European countries on pro-LGBTQ+ policy. Albania’s score increased from 34 (out of 100) in 2023 to 36 this year, but even those improvements trail behind the European average of 42.
Currently, Slovenia is the only Balkan country that allows all couples to marry equality, but there is room to hope for continued progress. Same-sex marriages are now legal in 15 of the 27 countries that make up the European Union, and Lichtenstein, which is not an E.U. member nation, will usher in the freedom to marry next year following a near-unanimous decision from its parliament.
Albania, for its part, has been on the cusp of LGBTQ+ rights advancement for years. Originally, the Albania government had hoped to extend greater legal recognition for cohabitating same-sex couples, including allowing unmarried couples to adopt, by amending the country’s existing Family Code and Adoption Law. However, political leaders ultimately backtracked and failed to make any substantive changes after receiving backlash from religious leaders.
As they await equality, Ahmetaj and Mara’s symbolic wedding is a reminder that no matter what the country’s laws say, LGBTQ+ people aren’t going anywhere.
“To those who are against this marriage, I am telling them that nothing will change,” Xheni Karaj, an LGBTQ+ activist who attended the ceremony, told Reuters. “The earth is still legal, Albania will continue to be poor and polluted.”
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Originally Appeared on them.
