Posted on 03/13/2007 8:44:21 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
PARIS - France's highest court Tuesday rejected as unlawful the first marriage by a gay couple in France, annulling the union of the two men.
Stephane Charpin and Bertrand Charpentier were married in a civil ceremony on June 5, 2004, in Begles, a town in the southwest Bordeaux region. The government immediately said the union was outside the law, and a series of court decisions unfavorable to the couple followed.
In the latest decision, the court ruled that "under French law, marriage is a union between a man and a woman," backing a 2005 decision by an appeals court in Bordeaux.
No other gay couple has married in France since Charpin and Charpentier's 2004 union.
Prosecutor Marc Domingo said during an earlier court hearing that it was the parliament, not judges, who should have the final word in any legalization of marriages involving homosexual couples.
The couple said after the 2005 appeals court ruling that they would take their case to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary. It was not immediately clear whether they would do so.
The lower court that initially rejected the marriage noted that gay couples in France are already covered by legislation that grants non-married cohabiting couples of the same or opposite sexes some rights enjoyed by married couples.
Good for France. Now if they can just keep the Algerians from marrying goats now.
Bordeaux. Everyone overtippled, starting with a city hall clerk, or whoever was responsible for the paperwork.
Well france isnt all bad I guess.
Well, that just "blows".
Viva la difference!
This has been one bad week for the gay folks. Not happy, ungay??
Oui Oui
Note to liberals. France is one of those advanced western democracies you constantly call for America to emulate.
A difference that makes no difference, IS no difference.
It always has been, and always should be, and probably always will be legal for homosexuals to get married. And no conservative I know wants it any different.
The only issue of contention is when people want to use government to force a new definition of marriage on the rest of society (such as a marriage that leaves out one of the two genders, or does not include exactly two people, or that involves animals, or siblings etc).
We sure could use some emulation of their willingness to use nuclear power.
It's pretty bad when a place like France is better than Massachusetts.
Mon Dieu! Sanity in France! I feel faint, like I may need to lay down for a few minutes.
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