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Support for marriage equality in France grows 20 percent in last decade

January 16, 2012

By Jacob Combs

Great news out of France that shows the tide of public opinion turning in the right direction: an opinion poll for the magazine Le Parisien shows that a full 63 percent of French adults supports marriage equality.  According to the poll, that’s a 20 percent increase since 2000.

Gay marriage has been in the French news of late, since an article published in the magazine Liberation reported that President Nicolas Sarkozy would be reversing course and supporting marriage equality in 2012, when he will be up for reelection.  A Sarkozy spokeswoman later denied the claim, tweeting that the president “didn’t change his mind, he is not favorable to gay marriage.”  For its part, Liberation is standing by its story, arguing that even if Sarkozy does not come out for marriage, he will include a civil union position in his election platform.  The president pledged to establish civil unions when he ran in 2007, a promise he has not followed through on.

Gay couples in France can enter into PACs (Civil Pacts of Solidarity), which do not provide the same legal protections as marriages.  Couples are also barred from adopting children.  The opposition Socialist party introduced a marriage equality bill in the parliament last summer, which failed.  Francois Hollande, the Socialist Party front-runner and a challenger to Sarkozy, supports marriage rights, and has announced that he will include it in his election platform.

Filed under: Marriage equality

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