There are still several steps for the legislation to go through before it becomes law, but the biggest hurdle was overcome in the Senate on Tuesday evening.
The French Senate voted Tuesday to legalize gay marriage. The legislation had already passed in the French Assembly, and the Senate decision was the last major hurdle. According to John Aravosis at AMERICAblog there are several more steps the bill will have to go through before gay marriage is legal in the European nation. As Aravosis explains,
Apparently, the way it works over there … the law is broken up into its component parts. And each part of the law gets voted on individually. In this case, the marriage part just got voted on and passed.
The next step is for the other parts of the law to be voted on (it’s almost like voting on amendments, to put it in American parlance). Anti-gay conservatives have offered hundred of amendments, and the bill has two dozen sections, each needing a vote – so it could be a month or more until it finally “finally” passes the Senate. Then, once all the parts are voted on, the Senate will one more time vote on the ENTIRE thing.
After the Senate is done voting on the whole package, it goes back to the Assembly to be promulgated – but that’s basically a formality. Since the Senate didn’t amend the law, as it was passed by the Assembly, it doesn’t have to go back to the Assembly for another vote.
Also, there is no concern about the Constitutional Council striking down the proposed law, as they have already stated they will abide by whatever the legislature agrees to. So the final hurdle was passing the specific provision legalizing same-sex marriage, and with the approval from the Senate, gay couples will be allowed to legally marry sometime this summer.
Photo: Michele Landi/Flickr