Phil in Paris
05-06-2004, 07:35 AM
Ben Townley, Gay.com UK
France is set to have its first same-sex wedding this year, after a local Mayor took exception to the lack of access to marriage for lesbian and gay couples.
Noel Mamere, mayor of the town of Begles in south west France, has said he will conduct the ceremony for the two men in June, after finding no laws in the country that could block it. Although not marriage, France has offered civil union ceremonies, similar in the rights and responsibilities to our currently debated Civil Partnerships bill, since 2000.
Mamere told the Reuters news agency it is "unacceptable" that lesbian and gay people do not have full equality when it comes to marriage, saying that in the European Union there is "nothing extraordinary" about same-sex marriages.
He added that the debate is spreading fast across the EU and there was no reason why France should be excluded.
"Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands have done it already and the new Spanish prime minister... has put it in his political programme," he said.
This is a reference to the recently elected Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who used his opening parliamentary speech earlier this month to pledge his support for same-sex marriage.
Mamer, who is also a parliamentary deputy for the Green Party, had apparently already broached the subject, telling residents of his town that if they wanted to get married they just needed to ask him.
The same-sex marriage debate is currently igniting across many Western countries.
In North America, the debate has reached President Bush who has outlined his support for a constitutional amendment to block gay couples form tying the knot, while north of the border, the Canadian government has already backed its plans to allow marriage across the country. This is currently being decided in the Supreme Courts, before it will be voted on in parliament.
Here in the UK, and supporters of full marriage equality have formed a coalition to push the government away from Civil Partnerships and towards allowing marriages for lesbian and gay couples.
However, the government says it has no intention of doing this, believing the Civil Partnerships bill to be sufficient.
Phil in Paris
05-06-2004, 07:39 AM
Justice minister says union will be blocked
PARIS France's first gay marriage, planned for June between two men, will be blocked or annulled, Justice Minister Dominique Perben said Wednesday.
.
Noël Mamere, a Green Party member of Parliament and mayor of Bègles in southwest France, had said that he planned to officiate at the same-sex union on June 5 as a gesture in support of equal rights in France.
.
He claimed that nothing in French law specified that marriages must be exclusively between a man and a woman and threatened to take any challenge to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.
.
Perben said public prosecutors would try to have the marriage blocked before the ceremony or annulled afterward.
.
"To argue that sexual difference between spouses is not written into the civil code is to lie," Perben said.
.
He cited a law that says a public official celebrating a wedding hears from "the two parties, one after the other, the declaration that they want to take each other for husband and wife."
.
He also argued that the European Convention on Human Rights defined marriage as a union of a man and a woman.
.
Perben told Le Figaro that Mamere, a former Green party presidential candidate, "has the obligation to uphold and respect the law, not to promote his own opinions."
.
"This marriage will be quite simply null and void because it is against the law," Perben said. "A mayor represents the state. He is therefore duty-bound to apply and respect the law, not to promote his own opinions."
.
Perben said he believed "there is a large consensus in favor of maintaining the current concept of marriage. Changing marriage is not an answer to current problems."
.
He said the center-right government had no plans to change the law, calling the issue a concern only for a "tiny minority, including for those on the left and for the majority of homosexual associations."
.
The Green Party, accusing the government of homophobia, said it would supported Mamere's "political, symbolic act."
.
Yann Wehrling, a party spokesman, said the "virulence" of Perben's remarks showed the government's backwardness "concerning necessary social advances."
.
In France, a traditionally Roman Catholic country with a secular state, couples must undergo a civil wedding, conducted by their local mayor, for their union to be legal, regardless of whether they also wed in church.
.
Since 2000, same-sex partners have been able to register their union under a legal device known as a "civil pact of solidarity" but this does not permit all the usual rights of marriage, such as adoption or the same fiscal advantages.Two other local politicians have said they are ready to follow Mamere's example.
.
One of them, Christophe Girard, is a deputy to the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, who is gay but has declined to back Mamere's move, arguing that "we are not going to settle the problem by organizing three high-profile gay marriages." Delanoë, a Socialist, said the question of same-sex marriages was "a little bit less urgent than the question of parenting."(AFP, Reuters)
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< < Back to Start of Article Justice minister says union will be blocked
PARIS France's first gay marriage, planned for June between two men, will be blocked or annulled, Justice Minister Dominique Perben said Wednesday.
.
Noël Mamere, a Green Party member of Parliament and mayor of Bègles in southwest France, had said that he planned to officiate at the same-sex union on June 5 as a gesture in support of equal rights in France.
.
He claimed that nothing in French law specified that marriages must be exclusively between a man and a woman and threatened to take any challenge to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.
.
Perben said public prosecutors would try to have the marriage blocked before the ceremony or annulled afterward.
.
"To argue that sexual difference between spouses is not written into the civil code is to lie," Perben said.
.
He cited a law that says a public official celebrating a wedding hears from "the two parties, one after the other, the declaration that they want to take each other for husband and wife."
.
He also argued that the European Convention on Human Rights defined marriage as a union of a man and a woman.
.
Perben told Le Figaro that Mamere, a former Green party presidential candidate, "has the obligation to uphold and respect the law, not to promote his own opinions."
.
"This marriage will be quite simply null and void because it is against the law," Perben said. "A mayor represents the state. He is therefore duty-bound to apply and respect the law, not to promote his own opinions."
.
Perben said he believed "there is a large consensus in favor of maintaining the current concept of marriage. Changing marriage is not an answer to current problems."
.
He said the center-right government had no plans to change the law, calling the issue a concern only for a "tiny minority, including for those on the left and for the majority of homosexual associations."
.
The Green Party, accusing the government of homophobia, said it would supported Mamere's "political, symbolic act."
.
Yann Wehrling, a party spokesman, said the "virulence" of Perben's remarks showed the government's backwardness "concerning necessary social advances."
.
In France, a traditionally Roman Catholic country with a secular state, couples must undergo a civil wedding, conducted by their local mayor, for their union to be legal, regardless of whether they also wed in church.
.
Since 2000, same-sex partners have been able to register their union under a legal device known as a "civil pact of solidarity" but this does not permit all the usual rights of marriage, such as adoption or the same fiscal advantages.Two other local politicians have said they are ready to follow Mamere's example.
.
One of them, Christophe Girard, is a deputy to the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, who is gay but has declined to back Mamere's move, arguing that "we are not going to settle the problem by organizing three high-profile gay marriages." Delanoë, a Socialist, said the question of same-sex marriages was "a little bit less urgent than the question of parenting."(AFP, Reuters) Justice minister says union will be blocked
PARIS France's first gay marriage, planned for June between two men, will be blocked or annulled, Justice Minister Dominique Perben said Wednesday.
.
Noël Mamere, a Green Party member of Parliament and mayor of Bègles in southwest France, had said that he planned to officiate at the same-sex union on June 5 as a gesture in support of equal rights in France.
.
He claimed that nothing in French law specified that marriages must be exclusively between a man and a woman and threatened to take any challenge to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.
.
Perben said public prosecutors would try to have the marriage blocked before the ceremony or annulled afterward.
.
"To argue that sexual difference between spouses is not written into the civil code is to lie," Perben said.
.
He cited a law that says a public official celebrating a wedding hears from "the two parties, one after the other, the declaration that they want to take each other for husband and wife."
.
He also argued that the European Convention on Human Rights defined marriage as a union of a man and a woman.
.
Perben told Le Figaro that Mamere, a former Green party presidential candidate, "has the obligation to uphold and respect the law, not to promote his own opinions."
.
"This marriage will be quite simply null and void because it is against the law," Perben said. "A mayor represents the state. He is therefore duty-bound to apply and respect the law, not to promote his own opinions."
.
Perben said he believed "there is a large consensus in favor of maintaining the current concept of marriage. Changing marriage is not an answer to current problems."
.
He said the center-right government had no plans to change the law, calling the issue a concern only for a "tiny minority, including for those on the left and for the majority of homosexual associations."
.
The Green Party, accusing the government of homophobia, said it would supported Mamere's "political, symbolic act."
.
Yann Wehrling, a party spokesman, said the "virulence" of Perben's remarks showed the government's backwardness "concerning necessary social advances."
.
In France, a traditionally Roman Catholic country with a secular state, couples must undergo a civil wedding, conducted by their local mayor, for their union to be legal, regardless of whether they also wed in church.
.
Since 2000, same-sex partners have been able to register their union under a legal device known as a "civil pact of solidarity" but this does not permit all the usual rights of marriage, such as adoption or the same fiscal advantages.Two other local politicians have said they are ready to follow Mamere's example.
.
One of them, Christophe Girard, is a deputy to the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, who is gay but has declined to back Mamere's move, arguing that "we are not going to settle the problem by organizing three high-profile gay marriages." Delanoë, a Socialist, said the question of same-sex marriages was "a little bit less urgent than the question of parenting."(AFP, Reuters) Justice minister says union will be blocked
PARIS France's first gay marriage, planned for June between two men, will be blocked or annulled, Justice Minister Dominique Perben said Wednesday.
.
Noël Mamere, a Green Party member of Parliament and mayor of Bègles in southwest France, had said that he planned to officiate at the same-sex union on June 5 as a gesture in support of equal rights in France.
.
He claimed that nothing in French law specified that marriages must be exclusively between a man and a woman and threatened to take any challenge to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.
.
Perben said public prosecutors would try to have the marriage blocked before the ceremony or annulled afterward.
.
"To argue that sexual difference between spouses is not written into the civil code is to lie," Perben said.
.
He cited a law that says a public official celebrating a wedding hears from "the two parties, one after the other, the declaration that they want to take each other for husband and wife."
.
He also argued that the European Convention on Human Rights defined marriage as a union of a man and a woman.
.
Perben told Le Figaro that Mamere, a former Green party presidential candidate, "has the obligation to uphold and respect the law, not to promote his own opinions."
.
"This marriage will be quite simply null and void because it is against the law," Perben said. "A mayor represents the state. He is therefore duty-bound to apply and respect the law, not to promote his own opinions."
.
Perben said he believed "there is a large consensus in favor of maintaining the current concept of marriage. Changing marriage is not an answer to current problems."
.
He said the center-right government had no plans to change the law, calling the issue a concern only for a "tiny minority, including for those on the left and for the majority of homosexual associations."
.
The Green Party, accusing the government of homophobia, said it would supported Mamere's "political, symbolic act."
.
Yann Wehrling, a party spokesman, said the "virulence" of Perben's remarks showed the government's backwardness "concerning necessary social advances."
.
In France, a traditionally Roman Catholic country with a secular state, couples must undergo a civil wedding, conducted by their local mayor, for their union to be legal, regardless of whether they also wed in church.
.
Since 2000, same-sex partners have been able to register their union under a legal device known as a "civil pact of solidarity" but this does not permit all the usual rights of marriage, such as adoption or the same fiscal advantages.Two other local politicians have said they are ready to follow Mamere's example.
.
One of them, Christophe Girard, is a deputy to the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, who is gay but has declined to back Mamere's move, arguing that "we are not going to settle the problem by organizing three high-profile gay marriages." Delanoë, a Socialist, said the question of same-sex marriages was "a little bit less urgent than the question of parenting."(AFP, Reuters)