DebatingDebating late into the night on Tuesday, France’s Senate voted to approve a key article of a controversial bill to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption, which redefines marriage as a union between “two individuals of different sex or of the same sex”, reports France 24.
The measure passed with a decisive majority of 179 votes to 157.
The vote was conducted after a series of proposed amendments to the statute were rejected by lawmakers, including one creating a civil union that would grant same-sex couples greater rights as an alternative to marriage. While members of France’s conservative UMP and the centrist UDI parties largely voted against the article, it passed with a clear majority in the left-wing dominated Senate.
Although the bill is still far from being ratified as a whole, Tuesday’s vote comes as a major victory for advocates of same-sex marriage in France.
