France advances towards legalizing same-sex marriage


France has been steadily moving to implement a promise made by its president Francois Hollande to legalize same-sex marriage, despite the Catholic Church and right wing groups mobilizing large protests against it, similar to what they have done in the US.

But just today news reports emerged of an important development involving the redefinition of marriage that suggested that the French legislature was undeterred by the opposition and was moving ahead.

The French National Assembly has approved the most important article of a bill to legalise same-sex marriage.

Deputies voted 249-97 in favour of redefining marriage as being an agreement between two people – not just between a man and a woman.

President Francois Hollande’s Socialists and their left-wing supporters backed it, opposed by many opposition UMP and centrist MPs.

The proposals have generated protests and counter-protests for months.

Opinion polls suggest that around 55-60% of French people support gay marriage, though only about 50% approve of gay adoption.

Correspondents say the ease with which the article passed suggests the bill as a whole will pass.

The final step of legalization is expected to happen in the middle of the year. The French Catholic Church has adopted the same charming arguments against this as US opponents of same-sex marriage. “In September last year, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Lyon, argued that plans to redefine the concept of marriage would open the door to incest and polygamy.”

The good cardinal didn’t include bestiality so Rick ‘Man on Dog’ Santorum will undoubtedly be disappointed at his lack of commitment to their common cause.

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