French lawmakers on Tuesday defied months of angry protests to approve a bill that is to make France the 14th country worldwide to legalize same-sex marriages.
Opponents of the law vowed to fight on, quickly filing a constitutional challenge and promising more demonstrations to pressure French President Francois Hollande into backing down from signing the bill.
In its second and final reading, the French National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, voted 331 to 225 to adopt the bill allowing homosexual marriages and adoptions by gay couples.
French Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira hailed the approval of the bill as a “historic” moment.
“It grants new rights, stands firmly against discrimination [and] testifies to our country’s respect for the institution of marriage,” she said in a statement shortly after the vote.
However, the tension remained high inside parliament as well as on the streets: Ushers ejected two protesters from the parliamentary chamber as they unfurled a protest banner.
Soon after the law was voted through, lawmakers from right-wing parties filed a legal challenge with the constitutional council.
Senators from the main opposition UMP and other right-wing parties said: “The definition of marriage, a fundamental principle … cannot be modified by a simple law.”
Provisions allowing adoption by gay couples violate “fundamental principles” of France, including “the principle of human dignity and equality,” they argued.
Thousands of opponents of the law also refused to give up, demonstrating near to the National Assembly on Tuesday evening.
“We are going to show them that this is not over,” said the campaigner known as Frigide Barjot, leader of the “Manif pour tous” (Demo for all) group that has battled the bill.
She called on Hollande to hold a referendum on the issue. Another mass protest is already planned for May 26.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of France expressed its disappointment at the law and Bishop Bernard Podvin spoke of his “deep sadness.”
“Democracy has spoken,” he said. “But such a controversial law will not produce social cohesion.”
However, for Nicolas Gougain, a spokesman for Inter-LGBT, France’s leading gay rights group, the law was a victory for equality and democracy.
“This law takes no rights away from anyone, it only grants rights to others. This is liberation after years of fighting for equality,” he said.
In Paris late on Tuesday, police again clashed with a hard core of violent protesters among those opposing the law, as they had done during a series of protests in the capital last week.
One officer received a head injury as protesters threw firecrackers, bottles and stones at police, who responded with tear gas and made 12 arrests.
The constitutional council now has a month to make a ruling, but the government expressed confidence that the constitutional challenge would be dismissed.
Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets in a series of protests against the bill, surprising many in a country that, while predominantly Catholic, is known for its secular traditions.
Hollande could scarcely have anticipated the scale of the opposition he would face over a reform that initially seemed to enjoy solid majority backing among French voters.
However, recent polls have suggested that a campaign in which the Roman Catholic Church initially played the leading role has shifted opinion to the extent that the electorate is now fairly evenly split on both gay marriage and adoption.
If Hollande signs the law, France will join eight other European countries — the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland and Denmark — in legalizing same-sex marriages.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Cannabis-based medicines have shown little evidence of effectiveness for treating most mental health and substance-use disorders, according to a large review of past studies published in a major medical journal on Monday. Medical use of cannabinoids has been expanding, including in the US, Canada and Australia, where many patients report using cannabis products to manage conditions such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep problems. Researchers reviewed data from 54 randomized clinical trials conducted between 1980 and May last year involving 2,477 participants for their analysis published in The Lancet. The studies assessed cannabinoids as a primary treatment for mental disorders or substance-use
NATIONWIDE BLACKOUT: US President Donald Trump cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba, strangling the Caribbean island’s already antiquated grid Cuba’s national electric grid collapsed on Monday, the nation’s grid operator said, leaving about 10 million people without power amid a US-imposed oil blockade that has crippled the already obsolete generation system. Grid operator UNE on social media said that it is investigating the causes of the blackout, the latest in a series of widespread outages that last for hours or days and that this weekend sparked a rare violent protest in the communist-run nation. Officials ruled out a major power plant failure, but had still not pinpointed the root cause of the grid collapse, suggesting a problem with transmission. Officials said that
‘HEALTH ISSUE’: More than 250 women are hospitalized every day due to complications from unsafe abortions, and about three die, a study showed Jane had been bleeding heavily for days before finally seeking help, not from a hospital, but from the man who sold her the pills meant to end her six-week pregnancy. Abortions are strictly outlawed in the mainly Catholic Philippines, forcing women to turn to a patchwork of providers operating in the online shadows. While rare in practice, Philippine law allows for prison terms of up to six years for abortion patients and providers, leaving thousands of Filipinas to search for solutions in online forums where unlicensed sellers promote abortifacients. “It was very painful, as if my abdomen was being twisted,” said Jane, whose
RSS