France legalizes same-sex marriage and adoption

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The National Assembly just voted to definitely adopt same-sex marriage and adoption rights (as passed by the Senate), 331 in favour and 225 against.

The Constitutional Council will need to confirm its constitutionality, because the right is challenging the law. But, in reality, it's more or less over. Same-sex marriage and adoption is legal in France. The ragtag bunch of homophobes, far-right Catholic traditionalists, reactionaries, neo-fascists and racists have been defeated. I hope immediate drone strikes are scheduled against Frigide Barjot.

Vive la France, vive le progrès et mort aux réacs!

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Who switched? The previous vote was 329-229. Or was it just different legislators showing up?

Here's the detail of the vote:

566 votes
In favour: 331 (should be: 327)
Against: 225 (should be: 229)
Abstentions: 10

SRC 281 vs 4 vs 5
votes against: Bernadette Laclais (Savoie), Jérôme Lambert (Charente), Patrick Lebreton (Réunion), Gabrielle Louis-Carabin (Guadeloupe)
abstentions: Marie-Françoise Bechtel (Aisne), Jean-Luc Laurent (Val-de-Marne), Jean-Philippe Mallé (Yvelines), Dominique Potier (Meurthe-et-Moselle)

UMP 187 vs 2 vs 5
votes in favour: Benoist Apparu (Marne), Franck Riester (Seine-et-Marne)
abstentions: Nicole Ameline (Calvados), Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet (Essonne), Pierre Lellouche (Paris), Bruno Le Maire (Eure), Édouard Philippe (Seine-Maritime)

Luc Chatel, Alain Chrétien, Marianne Dubois and Henri Guaino voted in favour by accident, when corrected the actual result is 327-229, leaving only 2 UMP deputies in favour, the same as in the first vote.

UDI 25 vs 5
votes in favour: Philippe Gomès (New Caledonia), Yves Jégo (Seine-et-Marne), Sonia Lagarde (New Caledonia), Jean-Christophe Lagarde (Seine-Saint-Denis). Jean-Louis Borloo (Nord) is recorded as being against, but he corrected the official record saying he wanted to vote in favour.

Ecolo 17

RRDP 13 vs 2
votes against: Ary Chalus (Guadeloupe), Thierry Robert (Réunion)

GDR 9 vs 4 vs 1
votes against: Bruno Nestor Azérot (Martinique), Patrice Carvalho (Oise), Alfred Marie-Jeanne (Martinique), Jean-Philippe Nilor (Martinique)
abstention: Gabriel Serville

NI 7

http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/14/scrutins/jo0511.asp

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Alain Chrétien (Haute-Saône-1) No to Yes
Henri Guaino (Yvelines-3) No to Yes, I suppose he was quite confused, as he is very strongly opposed to it.
Luc Chatel (Haute-Marne-1) No to Yes
Marianne Dubois (Loiret-5) No to Yes

UDI: Jean-Louis Borloo (Nord-21) No to Yes

As I wrote above, these 4 voted yes by mistake. Borloo voted no by mistake last time around.

Has Hollande signed it yet?

France has no presidential veto. According to Article 10, the President promulgates the law within 15 days (which is suspended until the ConCon makes its decision, if the law is challenged, as this one will be). If the Prime Minister agrees to it, the President may ask the parliament to reconsider the law once.

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First significant achievement of Flamby in almost one year in office. Credit where it's due, this is an excellent law. If only the government could similarly get its act together in fiscal or education policy...

The best part, of course, is how enraged the reactionaries will be. I's OVER. They LOST. And the least deluded of them know the law will never be repealed. The forces of bigotry have been told a much deserved "f**k you" from all the decent people of this country, and this is just wonderful to see.

BTW, how much time will the CC take before rejecting the right's bogus claims of unconstitutionality?

This is the first good thing which Flanby has done and probably the last one as well. So let's enjoy the moment while it lasts. Besides, a defeat for the bigots and reactionaries is so rare these days...

It's funny to see how some in the UMP have started debating what they'll do now that the law is passed. The idea of "unmarrying" the gays in 2017 is rather amusing.

The ConCon should take up to a month, they're talking about the first legal gay marriages in June I think.

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That argument makes no sense. Changing a few minor laws here and a few others there does not take that much effort, and so does not district from material issues.

Well, in fairness the debate over this bill has significantly distracted the government (and media, etc.) from other issues, and has forced Socialist leaders to spend a good amount of energy to counter the flows of reactionary stupidity which have been mounting in the past months. However, it's not like the government has seemingly any worthy idea about what to do about the economy, so it's not like the energy spent there could have been spent on anything better. We'd better take what we can get...

The government etc was 'distracted' from other issues only because the right and the far-right decided to act like reactionary bigoted morons on the issue and turned what could have been a consensual matter (like it was in so many other countries, like Sweden or Uruguay or even South Africa) into a huge political issue which gave a voice to bigoted homophobes and created a horrible climate in which hateful and bigoted ideas were given some kind of legitimacy. The right's incessant whining and self-righteousness on the issue is horrible; because it's entirely their fault if this turned into some massive sh**tstorm. It's good that, for once, a French government didn't give in to the other side's bullsh**t.

Besides, what would the government have done had this issue not come up? This government has proven that it is totally incompetent and inept at everything it does, so it's not like it would have miraculously created a zillion jobs if gay marriage wasn't an issue at hand. 

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What does this mean for all French overseas territories?

Legal everywhere that is integral to France (French Guiana, Guadelope, Martinique, Reunion, Mayotte). They're as much a part of France as Paris. Not sure on areas with more autonomy like New Caledonia, but I suspect it does not apply.

Article 22 of the law specifies that the law will apply (except a few random parts which are not that important) to New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis-et-Futuna.

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What does this mean for all French overseas territories?

Legal everywhere that is integral to France (French Guiana, Guadelope, Martinique, Reunion, Mayotte). They're as much a part of France as Paris. Not sure on areas with more autonomy like New Caledonia, but I suspect it does not apply.

Article 22 of the law specifies that the law will apply (except a few random parts which are not that important) to New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis-et-Futuna.

So it applies to all but Saint Pierre et Miquelon, Saint Martin, and Saint Barthelemy?

It applies there too, since these 3 islands are fairly normal overseas territorial collectivities (but not DOMs) and they don't have extensive devolved powers or a special status.

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Ironically the French minister who helped push for legalized abortion in the '70s, Simone Veil opposed legalizing same-sex marriage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Veil

Lionel Jospin, the PS Prime Minister whose government created civil unions (PACS), also opposed same-sex marriage this year.