Comments on: France votes “no” on to marriage equality

By: Timothy Kincaid

Timothy Kincaid — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 18:32:59 +0000

TRiG,

No, Ireland has civil unions which provide for nearly all of the rights, benefits and obligations of marriage (there are some exceptions). PACS are among the weakest of all schemes in Western Europe.

By: chanson

chanson — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 05:05:09 +0000

It’s funny how counter-productive the efforts of the “defenders of marriage” are when it comes to promoting marriage. Even if you set aside the obvious (disallowing gay marriage is directly preventing committed couples from getting married) and just look at the effects on straight people’s marriages, they’re still doing the opposite of helping.

Before the gay marriage debate took off, there was a bit of a trend in the US and Europe that marriage is mostly for traditionalists who care whether they’re sinning or not, but most couples don’t really need it. That gay people would fight so hard for the right to marry has taught young straight people that marriage is something valuable, to work and fight for. And the statistics bear this out (in terms of increasing marriage rate and decreasing divorce rate in places where there’s strong support for gay marriage).

The story you cite illustrates the other side of the same coin. They tried telling people “You don’t really need marriage — you should be satisfied with PACS, which is pretty much just as good — marriage is for religious people.” And if you convince people of that, look what happens to (straight) marriage.

By: occono

occono — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 02:57:29 +0000

^^ Actually I think PACS are worse….

By: Graham

Graham — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 02:09:47 +0000

When the iron hand of Sarko is gone the true republican ideal of equality will triumph.

By: Timothy (TRiG)

Timothy (TRiG) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:41:30 +0000

I expect better things of the country which created one of the first human rights documents in the world. I think it’s still better than what we have in Ireland, isn’t it?

TRiG.

By: TonyJazz

TonyJazz — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 20:59:24 +0000

It remains dissappointing that the French remain behind their peers on this subject. I know they’ve been stuck with a sexist, right-wing government for a long time, but you’d hope that they would become more socially progressive at some point.

I’m glad that I haven’t been to France for a long while, and this is one more reason to avoid returning….

By: bigolpoofter

bigolpoofter — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:02:47 +0000

Brilliant! Blame the Gays because you set up a second-tier status that more heterosexuals seek now because of their fear of commitment.