Russian Legal Loophole Allows Country's First Gay Marriage

Irina Shumilova and Alyona Fursova, a lesbian couple in Russia, found a way to legally tie the knot in the rabidly anti-gay country on August 6, and the country's officials are foaming at the mouth over it.

The AFP reports one of the women was born male, but is now transgender and undergoing hormone therapy. Because her birth certificate still lists her as male, the paperwork was approved for their union.

"The official registration by two women happened because one of them is a man according to the documents. Formally it was a wedding between a man and a woman but de-facto it was between two women," said Anna Anisimova, an activist working with Vykhod, a St. Petersburg LGBT rights group. "It was the first (LGBT wedding) in Russia. Both brides wore white dresses."

Online photos from the ceremony showed the couple, one blonde and one brunette, in lacy wedding gowns, holding bouquets as they signed paperwork at a Russian civil registry office.

As Jezebel reports, the two probably won't have to wait long for their wedding present from Russian officials, which will likely come in the form of an all-expenses paid honeymoon to a Siberian gulag.

Russian legislator Vitalky Milonov has called the union an insult to Russian families, and has vowed to punish everyone involved. Because all it takes to corrupt the moral fiber of the entire country is a couple of gays tying the knot.

"There are certain moral standards which it is vital to implement," said Milonov. "These mad people should be banned altogether from getting married."

Milonov told Russian media that the staff at the registry office should be tried for treason or criminal negligence. He said he'd seek the marriage's annulment to avoid, "an ugly insult to millions of Russian families in the future."

Milonov was one of the more ardent lobbyists for Russia's Draconian "gay propaganda" law passed in 2013. The law makes it illegal to distribute information about homosexuality to children; the United Nations considers it a de-facto criminalization of the gay community.