Gay male couple in Italy want children.

Thanks to in vitro fertilization, the sperm of each of the would-be fathers was fertilized with a different egg donated by the same biological mother. That biological mother delivered the two baby boys in California.

When the couple returned to Italy and tried to register their sons’ births, officials refused because surrogacy is illegal in Italy.

Determined, the couple sued to be able to register the twins as their own. At trial, the Italian family court sided with the officials who had refused to even acknowledge the baby boys.

But an Italian appellate court partially reversed and found for the couple … sort of. The appellate court ruled that each partner could register his biological son as his own child.

But the other partner could not be recognized as a parent of, nor adopt his partner’s biological child.

And the twin brothers … were not legally related.

Counter-intuitively, an Italian organization advocating for gay rights hailed the ruling as favorable, because it did at least recognize each boy’s birth and Italian citizenship, and parental status of one gay partner.

Read more in this Washington Post article: These two baby boys are twins, but an Italian court says they aren’t brothers.