Aruba ? When two women tried to register as a married couple in Aruba last year, people on this Dutch island protested against gay unions outside Parliament.

The strong emotions ignited by the couple’s legal fight seeking to force Aruba’s government to recognize their marriage has underlined a deep cultural rift between liberal Holland and its conservative former colony.

After the Public Registry rejected the Oduber-Lamers’ marriage certificate, they filed a lawsuit charging Aruba’s government with discrimination. An island court ruled their union should be recognized.

The government appealed, and a ruling is expected Tuesday. Authorities vow to pursue the matter to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands if necessary.

Aruba, lying just off the Venezuela’s northern coast, was once a Dutch colony but is now an autonomous republic within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Dutch law requires the kingdom’s three parts – the Netherlands, Aruba and the Dutch Antilles – to recognize each other’s legal documents, including marriage certificates. But Aruba’s government contends the law also grants the island self-rule – and thus it should be permitted to ignore same-sex marriages from the Netherlands, which legalized such unions in 2001.