Same-sex marriage in France
has been legal in France since 18 May 2013. A bill granting same-sex couples the right to marry and jointly adopt children was introduced to the National Assembly by the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on 7 November 2012, with the support of President François Hollande who declared his intent to support the legislation during his campaign for the presidency. On 12 February 2013, the National Assembly approved the bill in a 329–229 vote. On 12 April, the Senate approved the bill with amendments in a 171–165 vote, followed by the approval of the amended bill by the National Assembly on 23 April in a 331–225 vote. However, a challenge to the law by the conservative Union for a Popular Movement party was filed with the Constitutional Council following the vote. On 17 May, the Council ruled that the law was constitutional. That same day, President Hollande promulgated the bill, which was officially published the next day in the Journal Officiel de la République Française. The first official same-sex marriage ceremony took place on 29 May in the city of Montpellier.
The legislation applies to metropolitan France as well as to all French overseas departments and territories. It made France the thirteenth country in the world and the ninth in Europe to allow same-sex couples to marry. Polling suggests that a significant majority of French people support the legal recognition of same-sex marriage.
History
Civil solidarity pact
Despite the creation and implementation in 1999 of the civil solidarity pact, more commonly known as PACS, a system allowing civil partnerships between two persons without regard to their gender and guaranteeing certain personal and civil rights to both "pacsés", there was considerable political and societal debate over same-sex marriage in France during the first decade of the 21st century.The civil solidarity pact was voted on by the French Parliament in November 1999 with the support of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. Following President Hollande's signature of a 2013 legalising same-sex marriage, PACS remains in effect and available for both opposite-sex and same-sex couples.
2004 Bègles marriage
of the Bordeaux suburb of Bègles Noël Mamère, a former Greens presidential candidate, conducted a same-sex marriage ceremony for two men, Bertrand Charpentier and Stéphane Chapin, on 5 June 2004. Mamère claimed that there was nothing in French law to prohibit such a ceremony, and that he would appeal any challenge to the European Court of Human Rights. Minister of Justice Dominique Perben had stated that such unions would be legally void, and called for judicial intervention to halt the ceremony. On 27 July 2004, the Bordeaux Court of General Jurisdiction declared the marriage "null and void". One legal argument defended by the public prosecutor, representing the national government, was that the French Civil Code contained several mentions of "husband" and "wife", thereby implying different genders. On 19 April 2005, the Appeals Court of Bordeaux upheld the ruling, and on 14 March 2007, the Court of Cassation turned down Charpentier and Chapin's appeal. On 9 June 2016, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the decision to invalidate Charpentier and Chapin's marriage did not constitute an infringement of the European Convention on Human Rights.Shortly after the ceremony took place, Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin instituted disciplinary procedures against Mamère, suspending him from his duties for one month. The local administrative court ruled that Mamère's suspension was legal and substantiated. Mamère said he would not appeal the ruling, having already unsuccessfully attempted to get an injunction from the court, then appealing the case to the Council of State; both had ruled that an injunction was not justified on grounds of urgency. On 11 May 2004, the First Secretary of the Socialist Party, François Hollande, announced that he would ask his party to file a draft law making same-sex marriages unequivocally legal. Some other party leaders, such as former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, publicly disapproved of same-sex marriage. Hollande's partner, Ségolène Royal, said at the time that she harbored doubts about same-sex marriage, though now fully supports it.
Developments in 2006–2011
A parliamentary "Report on the Family and the Rights of Children" was released on 25 January 2006. Although the committee recommended increasing some of the rights already granted by the PACS civil partnership, it recommended maintaining prohibitions against marriage, adoption and access to medically assisted reproduction for same-sex couples, arguing that these three issues were inseparable and that allowing them would contravene a number of articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which France is a signatory. Referring to the rights of children as a human rights issue, the report argued that children "now have rights, and to systematically give preference to adult aspirations over respect for these rights is not possible anymore." Because of these prohibitions, left-wing members of the committee rejected the report.LGBT organizations in France, believing that the prohibition of same-sex marriage was contrary to the Constitution of France, asked the Constitutional Council to examine the constitutionality of same-sex marriage and to review the articles of the Civil Code. On 28 January 2011, the Council decided that the illegality of same-sex marriages was not contrary to the Constitution, further stating that same-sex marriage legalization was a question for Parliament to decide.
On 14 June 2011, the National Assembly of France voted 293–222 against legalizing same-sex marriage. Deputies of the governing Union for a Popular Movement party mostly voted against the measure, while deputies of the Socialist Party mostly voted in favour. Members of the Socialist Party said that the legalization of same-sex marriage would become a priority should they gain a majority in the 2012 legislative election. On 12 November 2011, Mayor Jean Vila of Cabestany performed a same-sex wedding ceremony for a couple named Patrick, 48, and Guillaume, 37. The marriage was not recorded in order to prevent a subsequent nullification, and Vila described it as a "militant act", saying that "there are times when it is necessary to act outside the law. Refusing same-sex marriage is to deny the reality of thousands of couples." The French Government's reaction was mixed: the Secretary of State for Family, Claude Greff, called the event a "provocation on the eve of the presidential election", while Minister of Solidarity and Social Cohesion Roselyne Bachelot said she supported same-sex marriage but that the ceremony was "not the best way to advance the cause".
2012–2013 bill
Passage and promulgation
During his campaign for the 2012 presidential election, Socialist Party candidate François Hollande declared his support for same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples, including them as one of his campaign's 60 government commitments. On 6 May 2012, Hollande won the election and promised to pass same-sex marriage legislation before the spring of 2013. On 17 June, Hollande's party won an absolute majority in the National Assembly, followed by an announcement by government spokesperson Najat Vallaud-Belkacem that a same-sex marriage bill would be adopted in spring 2013 at the latest. On 3 July, in his first speech in front of the newly elected assembly, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault announced that marriage and adoption for all couples would be a reality "in the first semester of 2013". The draft bill was submitted to the French Parliament on 7 November 2012.On 2 February 2013, the National Assembly approved the first article of the same-sex marriage bill by 249 votes to 97; the debate took several days as opponents introduced more than 5,000 amendments to the bill in order to slow down its passage. La Manif pour tous also organised large-scale demonstrations against the law. On 12 February, the National Assembly approved the bill as a whole in a 329–229 vote and sent it to the Senate. The Senate started debating the bill on 4 April 2013 and five days later approved its first article in a 179–157 vote. On 12 April, it approved the bill with minor amendments in a 171–165 vote. The Senate version of the marriage bill was adopted by the National Assembly on 23 April 2013 in a 331–225 vote.
| Party | Voted for | Voted against | Abstained | Absent |
| Socialist, Republican and Citizen group | ||||
| Union for a Popular Movement group | ||||
| Union of Democrats and Independents | – | – | ||
| Ecologist group | – | – | – | |
| Radical, Republican, Democratic and Progressive | – | |||
| Democratic and Republican Left group | ||||
| Non-attached members | – | – | ||
| Total | 225 | 10 | 7 | |
| Total |
The same-sex marriage law is commonly referred to in France as la loi Taubira in reference to Justice Minister Christiane Taubira who introduced the bill to the French Assembly in November 2012 and was the bill's main sponsor. The law amended Article 143 of the Napoleonic Code to state: Marriage is contracted by two persons of different or of the same sex.
In French, same-sex marriage is known as mariage entre personnes de même sexe or more commonly as mariage pour tous. The term "marriage for all" is widely used in public discourse and in French media.