Germany made history last month when the country’s parliament voted to legalise same-sex marriage—but software issues could mean that couples could be kept waiting even longer to tie the knot.
Although the landmark ruling comes into force on October 1st—the marriage registry computer system is unable to issue licences for same-sex couples, only for a ‘man’ and a ‘woman’.
Berliner Morgenpost reports that the glitch is a problem country-wide and that it could take until November 2018 for LGBT+ couples to be correctly recorded.
"It is embarrassing that in the 21st century, a small adjustment would create such problems," Gay and Lesbian Federation (LSVD) spokesman Jörg Steinert told Deutsche Welle.
Same-sex couples can still get married at the beginning of October, but it would involve them registering as ‘man’ and ‘woman’.
One person wrote on the LSVD Facebook page: “I would be very interested if the wrong entries in the marriage register would then be corrected later in November 2018!?
Another said: “End of 2018...are they crazy?!”
The majority of German politicians voted in favour of marriage equality last month (393-226) after Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed a free vote.
