What do Gay Marriage Laws in France and the U.K. mean for the U.S?
By Lucas Eaves on 02/13/2013 in France, gay marriage with 7 CommentsRead Time: 4 - 6 minutes
Credit: http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/
On Tuesday, after ten days of debate in Parliament, the French Assemblee Nationale passed a law making same-sex marriage legal. The bill passed 329-229 vote. A week after the United Kingdom passed similar legislation, France became the thirteenth country in the world — tenth in Europe — to legalize same-sex marriage. Tweet it: Tweet
As these countries join the growing list of western nations legalizing same-sex marriage, some question if they are creating a new standard on the issue that could affect the United States in the near future. A glance at the manner these two countries dealt with this issue, which could not have been more different, makes it difficult to draw any certain conclusions. Nevertheless, the international climate for marriage equality is sure to enter the United States’ public discourse sooner rather than later. Tweet at @TheTaskForce: Tweet
In the UK, the law was championed by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and passed 400 -175, with the support of 41 percent of the conservative members of parliament. The debate of opening up the institution of marriage to include same-sex couples was not without opposition from the Church of England and other religious organizations on top of factions within the Conservative Party. However, 62 percent of Britishnationals favored the law, resulting in a fairly civil national debate. Tweet stat: Tweet
Contrarily, in France, marriage for all was a promise made by socialist President Francois Hollande during the 2012 campaign. Despite a similar percentage of support — about 60 percent of the population — the debate surrounding opening marriage to same-sex couples has been long and violent; not only among the members of France’s Parliament, but similar scenes played out amongst the public as well.
Not one day passed without new verbal attacks made by a politician or religious leader comparing same-sex marriage to polygamy, incest, or pedophilia.
Between 350,000 and 800,000 people went in the streets of Paris to protest the law in January. Such opposition to legalize gay marriage in the very liberal, very secular France has surprised many, especially abroad. Time Magazine went as far to ask: “Is gay marriage too progressive for the French?” Tweet at @TIME: Tweet
Despite having the same result, the approach to same-sex marriage in France and the UK seems to be sending contradictory and confusing messages to the international community. On one side, it sends the message that conservatives can be a strong force behind the legalization of same-sex marriage. On the other side, it seems that even within a liberal nation, this issue is far from settled.
Neither of these conclusions are helpful in determining how the changes across the Atlantic could affect the issue in the United States. However, one main finding can be drawn. In both countries, the party in power successfully initiated the reform because it did so at a moment when the popular support for same-sex marriage was quite strong, in both cases above 60 percent.
In recent years, the support among Americans for same-sex marriage has increased, but still hovers around 50 percent. Once a significant majority of Americans are in favor of gay marriage, activists may decide the iron is hot enough to mount pressure on lawmakers in the U.S. to act. Tweet stat: Tweet
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7 Comments
Jenny Jo
02.13.2013
This is an interesting article, particularly the insight into the French situation and their actions leading up to legalization (probably because I am not update on French politics or news, as Im sure this is something discussed much there).
While I feel that in the US, it should be left up to the people of the individual states to decide, its interesting that in France and GB, a majority of support (most likely urban, please correct me if Im wrong) for a very small minority was enough incentive to cause the legislators to balance the equality of marriage there.
While I am for equality of marriage for any gender, providing the voters in the area vote it in, (though I would much prefer if the government got out of marriage completely and removed all “benefits” associated, allowing marriages to be an agreement between 2 people, not a federal revenue source), I think this might display a flaw in a more democratic type system, as opposed to a democratic republic, wherein a small majority can cause a push for legislation that affects a very small group of people, despite furious and often, as mentioned in the article, violent opposition. It so happens the cause in this time was equality, but what about next time? America has suffered quite a few very poor, rash legislation decisions in the past 20 years.. “demanded” by a scared and angry populace.. are these other countries even more susceptible to such an event?
Lucas Eaves
02.13.2013
@lucaseaves
Jenny, in France and the UK had already in place a system of civil union for a few years which made the transition to marriage easier and more supported. This does not mean that everybody agreed with the new law but a majority of the population did thus is i does not seem to surprising that the legislator acted on it and passed a law they know has popular support.
Alex Gauthier
02.13.2013
@alexg
given both countries had civil union-type avenues in place before they outright legalized gay marriage, i think this gives some credibility to the idea that baby steps do lead to progress
Lucas Eaves
02.13.2013
@lucaseaves
And as for your statement “small majority can cause a push for legislation that affects a very small group of people”, this is part of the game. When we decided in the rules of democracy that a simple majority was enough to pass law on such and such issue, we accepted that these rules could be use to advance the interest of a small group and not the whole nation.
Jenny Jo
02.14.2013
Understood, which was part of my point I suppose, and I just wasnt as clear as I could have been. I meant to question (since I am not that knowledgeable on the subject, sorry) pertaining to the structure of government, since they are more democratic, (I assume similar to Californias system), whether these nations are extremely succeptible so something such as this… for instance I will mention that I know France has had recent (as in a few years ago) conflicts with a Muslim immigration population.. I know there has been “talk” in America of extreme profiling and discrimination of small groups of people, and we are not even wholly “democratic”, being a Constitutional Republic, yet many laws passed at public demand that violate the Constitution and are not even legal, yet are being enforced as such, at least until we get representatives who care to uphold our Constitution.
My inquiry really was that, it seems to me that nations where these practices are more democratic, and majority rule creates all laws, are even more suspectible to it than the US. It seems these countries, and perhaps Im wrong, but that why I asked… have no recourse if a slight majority group were to turn on and push for harmful legislation, in this example, perhaps to discriminate against Muslim immigrants, or Muslims period.
Solomon Kleinsmith
02.13.2013
@solomon_kleinsmith
What exactly is the potential impact on U.S. policy of this, as the headline on the front page suggests? A law passing overseas doesn’t have any impact on the law here.
Xander Pakzad
02.13.2013
@xanderpakzad
I predict a lot of gay marriage opponents in the US will just throw gay marriage in with all the other progressive EU policies we don’t share, trying to further the distance between the US and them. It seems to be a common strategy to equate all ideology on one side of the aisle as similarly foreign, flawed, and bad for the country. Making a liberal region more liberal would give more fuel to that voice. That’s not to say that it’d be effective, but it makes it easier for gay marriage opponents to stay distant from the issue.