LGBT people from 10 countries, who could potentially travel to France to get married, would be barred from doing so
Over 15 million LGBT people are banned from same-sex marriage in France, it was revealed today (2 July).
France has signed agreements with several countries saying any ex-patriots would be banned from marrying under the new ‘Marriage for All’ law.
The 10 countries are Algeria, Bosnia & Herzigovina, Cambodia, Laos, Montenegro, Morocco, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Tunisia as well as the region of Kosovo.
All of the countries do not allow same-sex marriage and the estimated LGBT population of these countries is roughly 15.3 million people. These people would be stopped marrying their French same-sex partner.
According to Radio France Internationale, agreements were signed decades ago but are coming into force in 2013.
‘When a marriage is planned between two people of the same sex, and one of the future spouses is an expatriate from one of those countries, the civil registrar cannot perform the marriage,’ a recommendation note sent to French civil servants said, which is reportedly being enforced.
A Polish man engaged to his French boyfriend, who did not want to be named, told GSN how the rule was ‘outdated’ and
‘unfair’.
‘As millions of gay people in France now have the right to marry, we’re still denied,’ he said.
‘It’s an outdated and unfair rule that because my home country is still homophobic, I have to suffer the consequences.’
Speaking to France 24, Paris West University professor Mathias Audit said the agreements were aimed as ‘regulating the status of immigrant workers or people of French origin who stayed in those countries at the time and wanted to remain subjected to French law’.
The first gay French couple married in Montpelier on 29 May.
by Joe Morgan
Source – Gay Star News
