(Moscow) A lesbian couple has made plans to wed in Canada to try and see if their marriage will be recognized in their home country of Russia. Irina Fedotova-Fet and Irina Shepitko first applied for a marriage license in May but were eventually denied.

“We’re a couple of girls who have been together for a long time, who live together. We’ve been together five years,” said Fedotova-Fet. “We’re a family — our relationship is in every way a marriage, just like all those heterosexual couples. We have a joint household, a life together, vacations, everything. We’re a family, but the right to marry has been taken away from us.”

Russia has a family code – established in the early 1990s – that does not grant civil unions or any equivalent to gay couples but does not explicitly prohibit foreign marriages of same-sex couples. The couple is trying to see if they can use this loophole to their advantage.

“Somebody has to start it sometime. We are the first real couple to fight for same-sex marriage to be recognized,” Fedotova-Fet said. “We hope that we can set a precedent, and that more and more people will follow our example.”

Russia decriminalized homosexuality only in 1993 and its gay pride parades are usually met with large opposition. Anticipating that their marriage will not be recognized, Fedotova-Fet and Shepitko have hired a lawyer from France to bring their case to the European Court of Human Rights

“If a person wants a career, to be more or less successful, he’ll hide that he’s gay,”Fetova-Fet said. “I have lots of gay friends who are fairly successful and pretend they’re straight and even get married. If you’re gay, you’re marginal.”

Read the full Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty story here.