In a landmark judgment, Romania's Constitutional Court has ruled that gay couples should have the same family rights as heterosexuals. The ruling comes ahead of a referendum next month on whether to ban gay marriage. The court held that gay couples have the same rights to a family life as heterosexuals and should "benefit, in the long term, from legal...recognition of their rights and obligations." The ruling, handed down on 27 September, was for a case brought by a US-Romanian couple who had asked that their marriage be recognized to allow the American could move with his husband to Romania.