ty. Were this so, a minority group's rights to freedom of religion, expression and assembly would become merely theoretical rather than practical and effective as required by the Convention (see Artico v. Italy, 13 May 1980, § 33, Series A No. 37, and Barankevich, cited above, § 31).
82. In the present case, having carefully studied all the material before it, the Court does not find that the events organised by the applicant would have caused the level of controversy claimed by the Government. The purpose of the marches and picketing, as declared in the notices of the events, was to promote respect for human rights and freedoms and to call for tolerance towards sexual minorities. The events were to take the form of a march and picketing, with participants holding banners and making announcements through loudspeakers. At no stage was it suggested that the event would involve any graphic demonstration of obscenity of a type comparable to the exhibition in the case of {Muller} and Others (cited above) referred to by the Government. The applicant submitted, and it was not contested by the Government, that the participants had not intended to exhibit nudity, engage in sexually provocative behaviour or criticise public morals or religious views. Moreover, it transpires from the mayor's comments (see, in particular, paragraphs 16 and 24 above) and the Government's observations (see paragraph 61 above) that it was not the behaviour or the attire of the participants that the authorities found objectionable but the very fact that they wished to openly identify themselves as gay men or lesbians, individually and as a group. The Government admitted, in particular, that the authorities would reach their limit of tolerance towards homosexual behaviour when it spilt over from the strictly private domain into the sphere shared by the general public (ibid., in fine).
83. To justify this approach the Government claimed a wide margin of appreciation in granting civil rights to people who identify themselves as gay men or lesbians, citing the alleged lack of European consensus on issues relating to the treatment of sexual minorities. The Court cannot agree with that interpretation. There is ample case-law reflecting a long-standing European consensus on such matters as abolition of criminal liability for homosexual relations between adults (see Dudgeon, cited above; Norris v. Ireland, 26 October 1988, Series A No. 142; and Modinos v. Cyprus, 22 April 1993, Series A No. 259), homosexuals' access to service in the armed forces (see Smith and Grady v. the United Kingdom, Nos. 33985/96 and 33986/96, ECHR 1999-VI), the granting of parental rights (see Salgueiro da Silva Mouta v. Portugal, No. 33290/96, ECHR 1999-IX), equality in tax matters and the right to succeed to the deceased partner's tenancy (see Karner v. Austria, No. 40016/98, ECHR 2003-IX); more recent examples include equal ages of consent under criminal law for heterosexual and homosexual acts (see L. and V. v. Austria, Nos. 39392/98 and 39829/98, ECHR 2003-I). At the same time, there remain issues where no European consensus has been reached, such as granting permission to same-sex couples to adopt a child (see {Frette} v. France, No. 36515/97, ECHR 2002-I, and E.B. v. France [GC], No. 43546/02, ECHR 2008-...) and the right to marry, and the Court has confirmed the domestic authorities' wide margin of appreciation in respect of those issues. This, however, does not dispense the Court from the requirement to verify whether in each individual case the authorities did not overstep their margin of appreciation by acting arbitrarily or otherwise. Indeed, the Court has consistently held that the State's margin of appreciation goes hand in hand with European supervision (see Handyside v. the United Kingdom, 7 December 1976, § 49, Series A No. 24). The Government's reference to the concept of a "court of fourth instance" (see § 58 above
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