Berlin (UPI) -- Germany's highest court ruled Wednesday that
homosexual couples have no legal right to marry, but called on federal
lawmakers to consider better legal protection for homosexual couples.

The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe said that refusal of
state marriage bureaus to allow homosexual weddings did not infringe
against rights of homosexuals because the institution of marriage in
Germany, as anchored in the constitution, is only open couples
comprised of a man and a woman.

"The question does not require any clarification," the Court's ruling
said.

But the Court, in its brief three-page ruling, also said German

lawmakers would have to consider whether the ban on homosexual
weddings should be mitigated by new laws which would give same sex
couples better legal security.

The appeal for homosexual marriages was brought to the Constitutional
Court by Cornelia Scheel, daughter of former German president Walter
Scheel, and Hella von Sinnen, a TV entertainer, after a marriage
bureau refused to wed the lesbian couple.

Denmark and Norway are the only countries in Europe which allow
homosexual marriages.