France Becomes 14th Country to Legalize Marriage Equality!

Félicitations to France for becoming the 14th nation to offer full and equal marriage rights! On Tuesday April 23, less than a week after New Zealand’s declaration, France’s senate passed a marriage equality bill into law with a vote of 331-225. The National Assembly originally supported the bill 329-229 and the Senate passed it with a voice vote. French lovers are happy to note that the law will be effect in just a few months, marking France as the 14th country to legalize marriage equality. In fact, this has been an unprecedented month for marriage equality internationally, beginning on April 10 when the Uruguay House of Representatives approved same-sex marriage with a vote of 71-21. Uruguay became the 12th country to pass the bill, which means April 2013 has seen the 12th, 13th and 14th countries to pass marriage equality into law. In all cases, support of same-sex marriage has been the clear majority vote. This victory for France, however, comes with frightening opposition. This includes the promise of retaliatory violence, with violent hate crimes against gay French citizens escalating, and death threats sent to lawmakers who intended to support the bills passing. As France’s Senate met for the vote, the hashtag #IlFautTuerLesHomosexuels, or “Homosexuals must be killed,” was trending on Twitter. In light of all this, it’s important that we as a global community show our support for France! You can join the conversation by tweeting us @beutifulmag, using hashtags such as #SupportFrance and #MarriageEquality, liking and sharing articles, posting on facebook and just generally making as much online noise as possible. To the haters we say, “vive la différence!”