For two years, Lili and Darina Babulkova have been struggling to have their marriage in the UK legalised in Bulgaria, where LGBT marriages are not recognised. Their most recent appeal, to the Supreme Court, resulted in a “no”, based on a reading of the constitution that still defines a marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The Babulkovas, both in their early thirties, live in Sofia and work as freelance translators. They have been together for a decade. They married in Britain in 2016 and in 2017 started the process of getting their marriage recognised in Bulgaria on the basis of European Code of Private International Law.

If they cannnot get their marriage legalised in Bulgaria, they risk missing out on tax and family benefits and cannot make a will with one naming the other as their partner.

They also cannot both be recognised in law as parents, if they have a child. This is important, as the two women who have made quite a few media appearances in print, online and on TV, highlighting the broader issues of LGBT acceptance and the lack of legal same-sex unions in Bulgaria, plan to have children.