Same-sex marriage in France


Same-sex marriage in France has been legal since 18 May 2013. It became the thirteenth country worldwide to allow same-sex couples to marry. The legislation applies to metropolitan France as well as to all French overseas departments and territories.
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 2013, 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 2013 in a 331–225 vote. However, a challenge to the law by the conservative UMP party was filed with the Constitutional Council following the vote. On 17 May 2013, 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. The first official same-sex marriage ceremony took place on 29 May 2013 in the city of Montpellier.

History

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.

Mamère and same-sex marriage

On 5 June 2004, former Green Party presidential candidate Noël Mamère, Mayor of the Bordeaux suburb of Bègles, conducted a same-sex marriage ceremony for two men, Bertrand Charpentier and Stéphane Chapin. 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.
French 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, who, representing the national government, opposed the marriage, 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. 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.

Reaction

Shortly after the ceremony took place, Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin instituted disciplinary procedures against Mayor 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, Socialist Party leader 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.

2006 parliamentary report

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.

2011 Constitutional Council decision

LGBT organizations in France, believing that the prohibition of same-sex marriage was contrary to the Constitution, asked the country's 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.

2011 bill

On 14 June 2011, the National Assembly of France voted 293–222 against legalizing same-sex marriage. Deputies of the majority party Union for a Popular Movement mostly voted against the measure, while deputies of the Socialist Party mostly voted in favour. Members of the Socialist Party stated that legalization of same-sex marriage would become a priority should they gain a majority in the 2012 legislative election.

Cabestany's 2011 same-sex marriage

On 12 November 2011, Cabestany Mayor Jean Vila 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 homosexual marriage is to deny the reality of thousands of couples."
The French Government's reaction was mixed: junior Families Minister Claude Greff called the event a "provocation on the eve of the presidential election", while Solidarity Minister Roselyne Bachelot stated that she supported same-sex marriage but that the ceremony was "not the best way to advance the cause".

2012–2013 bill

During his campaign for the 2012 presidential election, Socialist Party candidate François Hollande declared his support for same-sex marriage and for 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 French 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 everybody would be a reality "in the first semester of 2013". The draft bill was submitted to 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 against 97; the debate took several days as opponents introduced more than 5,000 amendments to the bill in order to slow down its passage. On 12 February 2013, the National Assembly approved the bill as a whole in a 329–229 vote and sent it to the Senate.
On 4 April 2013, the Senate started the debate on the bill and five days later approved its first article in a 179–157 vote. On 12 April, the Senate 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.
The opposition UMP party immediately filed a challenge against the law to the Constitutional Council. On 17 May 2013, the Council declared the law constitutional. The same day, President Francois Hollande promulgated the bill, which was officially published on 18 May 2013, in the Journal Officiel. The first official same-sex wedding ceremony took place on 29 May in the city of Montpellier.
The same-sex marriage law is commonly referred to in France as la loi Taubira, after Justice Minister Christiane Taubira who introduced the bill to the French Assembly in November 2012 and was the bill's main sponsor.
In June 2013, the French Government issued a bulletin "relating to the consequences of illegally refusing to celebrate a marriage on the part of a civil registrar", wherein it declared the illegality of any refusal by a state officer to grant marriage certificates to same-sex couples. The bulletin stipulates a punishment of 5 years imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros for any mayor or local official who refuses to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple on the sole basis of their sexual orientation. The official may also face discrimination charges under Article 432-7 of the Penal Code. 146 mayors unsuccessfully challenged the bulletin in French courts. Their case eventually made its way to the European Court of Human Rights, which dismissed it in October 2018.

Scope

There had been initial confusion over whether the act applied to nationals of Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Kosovo, Laos, Montenegro, Morocco, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia or Tunisia, as it breached bilateral agreements stipulating that the law of those countries applies, rather than French law. The Court of Cassation ruled that it does in September 2015, finding the provisions excluding these countries discriminatory and contrary to French law.

Marriage statistics

The marriage rates of same-sex couples in France has remained relatively constant over the years, except in 2014 when there was an increase in marriages.
In 2013, following the implementation of same-sex marriage in France, approximately 7,000 same-sex couples were legally married in the country. They made up approximately 3% of all marriages at that time, with three out of every five same-sex marriages involving male couples.
In 2014, approximately 10,000 same-sex marriages took place in France, representing 4% of all marriages performed that year. 54% of these marriages were between men, while the remaining 46% were between women. Some 6,000 French communes celebrated at least one same-sex marriage. 1,331 same-sex couples married in the French capital of Paris, comprising 13.5% of the total number of weddings performed in the city.
In 2015, 7,751 same-sex couples wed in France, representing 3.4% of all marriages. Additionally, that same year, some 7,017 same-sex PACS were celebrated throughout the country. In 2016, 7,113 same-sex marriages were performed in the country, making up around 3% of all marriages. There were also 7,102 same-sex PACS.
From May 2013 to December 2016, approximately 32,640 same-sex marriages were performed in France.
In 2017, approximately 7,000 same-sex couples got married in France.
By 23 April 2018, five years after the French Parliament had approved the same-sex marriage law, approximately 40,000 same-sex couples had married in the country. This represented about 3.5% of all marriages performed during that time. Of these, most were celebrated in Paris, Calvados, Charente-Maritime, Hérault, Orne, and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. In contrast, the departments with the least same-sex marriages were Guadeloupe, Mayotte, Martinique, French Guiana, Haute-Corse, and Réunion.

Overseas departments and territories

In Martinique, the first same-sex marriage, between a lesbian couple, was celebrated in June 2013. The first same-sex wedding in Guadeloupe occurred in July 2013 in the city of Saint-Anne. In Mayotte, the first same-sex wedding was performed in September 2013 in Mamoudzou, the largest city in the department. This marked the first time in history that a legally recognized same-sex marriage occurred in a jurisdiction where a majority of the population follows the religion of Islam.
In Réunion, the first same-sex marriage, of a lesbian couple, was performed in June 2013. By July 2015, 93 same-sex couples had married on the island.
The first same-sex marriage in French Guiana took place in August 2013. The couple wed in the city of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. By April 2015, only five same-sex marriages had been performed in French Guiana. By April 2018, 12 same-sex couples had married in the capital Cayenne.
The first same-sex marriage in French Polynesia took place on the island of Mo'orea in July 2013. In Saint Martin, the first same-sex marriage was celebrated in October 2013, while Saint Pierre and Miquelon's first was performed in March 2014.
By February 2014, 11 same-sex marriages had occurred in New Caledonia, representing 1.7% of all marriages. 9 of these marriages were celebrated in the South Province and the remaining 2 were celebrated in the North Province.
Overall, relatively few same-sex marriages have been performed in French overseas departments and territories compared with the number of those performed in metropolitan France. According to a 2018 report, eight same-sex marriages had been celebrated in Saint Barthélemy, five in French Polynesia, four in Saint Martin, two in Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and one in Wallis and Futuna since legalization.

Public opinion

Opinion polls show that the French public supports the legalization of same-sex marriage: