The draft of France’s forthcoming marriage equality law isn’t just going to grant same-sex couples equal marriage and adoption rights. The Telegraph reports that it goes one step further, removing all gender-specific language in French civil law so as not to show a preference to straight parents over LGBT parents:
The move, which has outraged Catholics, means only the word “parents” would be used in identical marriage ceremonies for all heterosexual and same-sex couples.
The draft law states that “marriage is a union of two people, of different or the same gender”.
It says all references to “mothers and fathers” in the civil code – which enshrines French law – will be swapped for simply “parents”.
The law would also give equal adoption rights to homosexual and heterosexual couples.
Justice Minister Christiane Taubira told France’s Catholic newspaper La Croix: “Who is to say that a heterosexual couple will bring a child up better than a homosexual couple, that they will guarantee the best conditions for the child’s development?”
“What is certain is that the interest of the child is a major preoccupation for the government.”
Predictably, the push for marriage equality in France has that nation’s Catholic bishops up in arms; the Telegraph article quotes Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon, as saying that it would lead to legalized incest and polygamy. Calling homosexuality “a concept of human nature that has proven defective,” Pope Benedict XVI has invited 30 French bishops to Italy to urge them to fight even harder against equal marriage rights.
The draft marriage equality law is scheduled to be presented to the cabinet of Prime Minister François Hollande for approval on October 31.
