The draft bill was submitted to parliament on 7 November 2012, by justice minister,
Christiane Taubira. In its explanatory memorandum, the government noted that "marriage is traditionally defined as a formal legal act by which man and woman establish a union and civil law regulates the conditions, effects and dissolution" but that "the idea of opening marriage to same sex couples has risen steadily" since the adoption of civil unions and that "a new step must be taken". In an interview published the same day by the newspaper
Sud Ouest, Taubira said that the bill would be "a reform of civilization". The bill: • does not change the current system of marriage – it instead makes the celebration possible between two persons of the same sex living in France; • changes default arrangements with regard to surnames; • opens the way for adoption by married same-sex couples, whether joint adoption or individual adoption; • recognizes marriages between two people of the same sex performed abroad, including (retroactively) their children adopted legally in France or abroad; • provides, when necessary, adaptations to the Civil Code and twelve other codes (Code of Criminal Procedure, Code of transport, etc.), as well as four other major laws (a 1945 ordinance on juvenile delinquency, a law on public hospitals, a law on public services, a law on public land). The words "father and mother" are replaced by the word "parent" and the words "husband and wife" with the word "spouse"; these changes do not apply to acts of
civil status and
family registers, as neither form is governed by law; • authorizes the government to proceed in these adaptations as necessary, by means of simple (regulatory) ordinances, without requiring any new law, to modify these laws and regulations as necessary to fix their interpretation according to the main articles of the new bill (most of these adaptations will be in simple replacements of the terminology, or removal of articles fixing restrictions against same-sex parents). The bill does not create any new right to have children, but it also does not extend, restrict or modify it further. All existing legal conditions and controls will apply to same-sex spouses equally to spouses of different sexes, or to single people. It also reaffirms (as agreed by the Constitutional Council) that parental civil relations are independent of the biological or natural conditions, simply because this has never been affirmed by existing laws during the Republic or by its current Constitution and preambules. Also it does not invalidate any existing international convention or treaty which may be applicable abroad. In the National Assembly, the bill was returned to the
Law Commission for which
Erwann Binet was appointed rapporteur. On 14 November 2012,
Marie-Françoise Clergeau was appointed rapporteur for the opinion of the Social Affairs Committee.
Legislative opposition On 26 October 2012, the former prime minister and deputy of Paris
François Fillon (UMP) stated that his party would repeal the law, if it wins the next election.
Valérie Pécresse, also of the UMP, voiced the same position. On 27 November 2012, during a debate on a law concerning terrorism, UMP deputy Nicolas Dhuicq linked the bill on same-sex marriage, homosexual parenting and terrorism. This statement was condemned by government spokesman Najat Belkacem-Vallaud. The next day, in the context of a question to the government,
Marc Le Fur (UMP) stated that legalized adoption for gay couples would mean that for some "the child is simply a commodity" and that the government means "to impose by force" the law.
Dominique Bertinotti, minister for the family, considered that these words "do not honor" the member and replied: "At the time of
PACS, you proclaimed the end of the world. The end of the world did not occur"."
Law Commission hearings and debates The Law Commission held weekly hearings on same-sex marriage from November 2012. It heard evidence from countries already having opened up marriage to same-sex couples, representatives of institutions, anthropologists, philosophers, doctors, lawyers and LGBT families. Associations opposed to the bill, however, disputed the method of rapporteur, Erwann Binet. On 6 December 2012, Nicolas Gougain, spokesman of
Inter-LGBT, denounced insinuations during his hearing before the committee that "because you are gay parents, you are potentially dangerous to your children because of the company you keep". On 13 December 2012, at a hearing before the Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly, the
Defender of Rights,
Dominique Baudis, said that the text "puts an end to situations of inequality or indirect discrimination" and gives children raised by a homosexual couple "a legal status preferable to the current situation," while expressing reservations "on the method of preparation of bill". "Although parental marital situations and all spouses [...] are not identical in all respects, the project seeks to confuse", "the result of this confusion may be many legal uncertainties harmful" to "all children". On 15 and 16 January, the debate in the Law Commission went over the text of the bill, including an amendment by the rapporteur Erwann Binet to Article 4 of the draft stating that the provisions of the Civil Code apply to "same-sex parents when referring to the father and mother" and not to grandparents.
Discussion session The floor debate began on 29 January 2013. 5362 amendments were filed, mostly by right-wing opposition groups, which brought the bill to "among the top 10 bills with the largest number of amendments in 30 years", the record being held by left-wing parliamentary groups with 137,655 amendments to the law on energy which privatized
Gaz de France in 2006. The referendum motion filed by 60 members was dismissed on 30 January 2013 by 298 votes against 184, and the amendment of the conscience clause was rejected on February 2 by 244 votes against 101. On 2 February 2013, the National Assembly approved Article 1 of the bill, which defines marriage as a union between two people regardless of the gender of the partners, by 249 votes against 97. On 12 February 2013, the National Assembly approved the bill as a whole in a 329-229 vote.
Senate Following the National Assembly's approval, the
Senate has to consider the bill. On 20 March, the Law Committee of the Senate advanced the bill by a 23-21 vote. The full Senate has been considering the bill since 4 April. The Senate rejected a motion that would have put the issue before voters in a national referendum. The Senate approved the full bill with a 171-165 majority on 12 April with minor amendments.
Second National Assembly vote The National Assembly adopted to vote on the bill without further amendment, meaning that, if approved, the text would become definitive. It approved the bill as amended by the Senate on 23 April 2013, in a 331-225 vote, with ten abstentions. Shortly before the vote, protesters opposing the law were ejected from the Assembly as they tried to unfurl a banner. The announcement of the result was met with cheers and chants of "
égalité" from supporters of the bill in the parliamentary chamber. In a speech following the vote, justice minister
Christiane Taubira, who had authored the bill, expressed her "pride", saying: "Those who are opposed today will surely be surprised to be overcome with emotion at the happiness of the married couples". They cited insufficient consultation with religious leaders, incompatibility with the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the passage of the bill without a referendum. They also challenged a provision in the bill allowing employees, regardless of sexuality, to refuse deployment to a country where there would be a risk to the safety of an openly gay person, on the grounds that this could not be exercised without implicitly "coming out", contrary to the right to a private life contained in
Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. A provision denying the automatic right of a sperm donor to lesbian parents to be named in official documents was also challenged. According to the legal experts there was little chance of preventing the passage of the bill on these grounds, On 17 May 2013, the Court ruled that the bill is constitutional.
Promulgation On 17 May 2013, the law was
promulgated by President François Hollande, and published in the
Journal officiel de la République française (JORF) the next day. On 24 May, the government issued the decree implementing the law. It was published in the official journal on 28 May 2013. The city hall of
Montpellier announced on 18 May that it had already accepted to preregister a marriage (using the publication of the passed law in the JORF to justify this), without waiting for application decrets, so that the first same-sex marriage in France (between two men) was celebrated and signed on 29 May. ==Scope==