For the first time, an Italian court has ruled that a gay couple should be legally recognized as the fathers of surrogate twins. The Court of Appeals in Trento said both men, not just the biological father, should be listed as the children’s parents.

The twins, now 7, were conceived via a surrogate in Canada and then brought home by the couple. But Italian law prohibits surrogacy, and does not allow adoption by same-sex couples, leaving the children’s status in limbo.

In 2015, a child was removed from its home and put up for adoption, after it was discovered its parents had hired a surrogate in Ukraine. Just this January, another gay couple was devastated when a court ruled they could not register their twin 15-month-olds as their legal children, despite being biologically related to the boys.

Italy passed a civil unions law in last year, but language allowing gay parents to adopt their partner’s child was removed to appease conservatives and the Catholic Church. Individual gay couples have won the right to adopt—including a lesbian couple in Rome that simultaneously adopted each other’s daughters—but the country’s knotty legal system makes it nearly impossible to set precedent.

But in this decision, the judges said in Italy parental relationships should not be determined only by the biological link. “One must consider the importance of parental responsibility, which is manifested in the conscious decision to raise and care for the child,” the court wrote.

Attorney Alexander Schuster represented the couple, who are remaining anonymous, in the proceedings. “This is a recognition of full parenthood, in other words, not adoption,” said Schuster. “It has recognized for the first time a foreign provision that gives the second father the status of a parent.”

Marilena Grassadonia, president of gay parents’ group, Famiglie Arcobaleno ("Rainbow Families") hopes other courts follow this ruling. “It is the only way that we can safeguard our children,” she said.