The Slavkas – Jakub took Ivo’s surname when they became civil partners in 2012 – had to go court to become joint foster parents.
And they cannot adopt their children or get married as neither right is given to gay couples in the Czech Republic. “We would like to be married, not to be registered,” said Ivo, a 54-year-old civil servant originally from Slovakia, comparing the civil partnership process to registering a car. “We would like to adopt our children … They know about their families, but they call us fathers,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a video call from the capital, Prague.
With elections due in October, the chances of the Czech Republic becoming the first formerly communist European country to grant marriage equality