French Senate Approves Marriage Bill 179-157!

As expected, the upper house of the French Parliament has followed earlier action by the lower house by approving a key provision of a marriage equality bill allowing same-sex couples to marry. The French Senate passed the article by a vote of 179-157, a much closer margin than the 100 votes by which the same article passed in the French National Assembly in February.

This is what the news looks like in French:

Le Sénat a adopté mardi soir par 179 voix contre 157 le premier article du projet de loi sur le mariage homosexuel, le plus important, celui qui ouvre le mariage aux personnes de même sexe. Cet article a été adopté "conforme", c'est-à-dire sans modification par rapport au vote en première lecture de l'Assemblée nationale. Ce vote devient donc définitif sauf si l'ensemble du projet de loi était rejeté à l'issue de son examen par le Sénat. Il ne sera pas soumis à une deuxième lecture de l'Assemblée nationale ni à la CMP (Commission mixte paritaire).

From my years of high school and college French the first sentence can be translated as "The Senate adopted on Tuesday evening by 179 votes to 157 the first article of the project of the law on homosexual marriage, the most important, the one which opens marriage to persons of the same sex."

There are still some procedural legislative motions that have to occur before France becomes the 16th country in the world to have marriage equality somewhere within its borders but by approving the most important and key provision, the law is expected to go into effect well before the end of the year.

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God