Same-sex marriage has been legal in France since 18 May 2013. It is the thirteenth country worldwide to allow same-sex couples to marry. The legislation applies to metropolitan France as well as to the French Overseas departments and territories. Nationals of 11 countries with which France has conflicting bilateral agreements can not marry in France.
A bill granting same-sex couples the right to marry and jointly adopt children was introduced to the National Assembly by the Socialist government ofPrime 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 is constitutional. On 17 May 2013, Hollande promulgated the bill, which was officially published the next day in the Journal Officiel. The first official same-sex ceremony took place on 29 May in the city of Montpellier.
There has been confusion over whether the act applies to nationals of Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Kosovo, Laos, Montenegro, Morocco, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia or Tunisia as it would breach bilateral agreements that stipulate the law of that state applies rather than French law. The Court of Cassation ruled that it does in September 2015 by finding the provisions excluding these countries discriminatory and contrary to French law.
In 2013, following the implementation of same-sex marriage laws in France that went into effect on 29 May, approximately 7,000 same-sex couples legally married in the nation. These unions made up around 3% of all marriages in France in that time, with three out of every five same-sex marriages involving male couples rather than female couples.
A June 2015 BVA poll found that 67% of respondents were in favour of same-sex marriage, 57% were in favour adoption rights for same-sex couples and 64% were against revising the 2013 law.
A May-June 2015 Eurobarometer found that 71% of French thought that same-sex marriage should be allowed throughout Europe, 24% were against.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Same-sex marriage in France, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.