Adopting the same thread format used for New Zealand that beat us to the punch last week : SSM was voted one hour ago by the French parliament, along with adoption rights for SS couples, following some rather agitated weeks during which homophobia reached some new heights (despite a short majority of the population supporting it).
The conservative party UMP will demand a constitutional review of the law by the French “supreme court”, on basis yet unknown (those reviews take place before the law can be signed by the president, and are normally done in quick order).
The first marriages are expected to take place in June.
Previously, France had a kind of civil union that didn’t grant all the rights of marriage, and unexpectedly ended up being used at 95% by heterosexual couples.
For some reason, it puts Prince’s “7” lyrics into my head
All 7 and we’ll watch them fall
They stand in the way of love
And we will smoke them all
With an intellect and a savoir-faire
No one in the whole universe
Will ever compare
I am yours now and you are mine
And together we’ll love through
All space and time, so don’t cry
One day all 7 will die
As I understand it, the problem is not that US same-sex couples can’t get married in other countries; it’s that the marriages aren’t recognized when they get back to the States.
I’ll reserve commentary on other social issues France needs to appropriately address for another forum, and simply congratulate them on passing this historic piece of legislation.
The protests were pretty embarrassing, but the real question is: where was the singing in parliament?! After NZ all other countries are just going to be disappointing
Still: Hourra! (I’m going for a French “huzzah” but I don’t actually know what it is… Is this right?)
Now if only a country that so proudly talks about “equal justice under the law” (as carved onto the front of the US Supreme Court building) could do the same thing.
I don’t think so. France, like many European countries, has rules in place to discourage “marriage tourism”. IIRC at least one partner must either be a French citizen, or resident in France for a certain amount of time. I know French couples need special permission to get married in a commune that neither of them live in. At least as far as the civil wedding goes; religous ceremonies have no legal significange under French law & are unregulated. What would really be nice is if one of France’s Caribbean territories could get a waiver letting US couples get married there. AFAIK none of the Dutch territories actually allows same-sex marriage locally.
On the bright side, the Nevada senate voted today to begin the procedure to eliminate the SSM ban from the state constitution and replace it with language affirming the right to marriage between whatever genders. Assuming it passes any hurdles, it won’t make it onto the ballot until 2016 but you’ve got to start somewhere.
The big Dutch islands, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten, are separate “constituent countries” within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and they don’t allow same-sex marriage. The smaller islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba are now part of the Netherlands proper, and so they do. EDIT: however, they require that at least one of the partners have Dutch nationality or permanent residence.
It’s also allowed in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, which has a Caribbean coastline.
And the residence limitation doesn’t mean you can’t get married in France if you’re a foreigner, just if you’re a non-resident - although there may be other limitations which do, for this specific case. Spain doesn’t have a residence limitation in any case but the marriage entered (or its translation) has to be valid in the country or countries of which the spouses to be are citizens/nationals: so, no Americans can enter a SSM while in Spain, since they’re not valid at the federal level, but a French person now can.
