Same-Sex Marriage France Update

PARIS — Gay couples in France will be allowed to get married and to adopt children from next year, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault announced last week.

“In the first half of 2013, the right to marriage and adoption will be open to all couples, without discrimination,” he told parliament, confirming an election promise by Socialist President Francois Hollande.

“Our society is evolving, lifestyles and mentalities are changing,” he said in a speech outlining the new Socialist government’s agenda. “The government will respond to that.”

The confirmation came just days after Paris held its annual Gay Pride parade, which this year was buoyed by the promise of the new government to legalise gay marriage and adoption rights. And the announcement follows just a few short months after LGBT activists in France staged a national LGBT equality summit in the setting of a French presidential debate.

Read more : Same-sex marriage, gay adoption allowed in France from 2013

Marriage Equality in France ?

A couple of months following the Meeting LGBT national presidential debate in France, the government spokeswoman makes a stunning announcement about marriage equality.

While attending the LGBT pride festival in Lyon, the spokeswoman for the French government promised that marriage equality would be adopted by spring 2013, reported ACT-UP.

The government spokesman, Najat Belkacem-Vallaud, said that the marriage equality bill to be drafted and adopted before spring 2013, "if possible."

Marty Edwige, the head of Fierté, the Lesbian & Gay Pride de Lyon, called on the government to schedule a vote "as soon as possible" on marriage equality and on LGBT parenting.

This breakthrough in French LGBT civil rights comes less than three months after LGBT activists in France organized a presidential debate on LGBT equality called Meeting LGBT pour l'egalite.