French president François Hollande has signed a controversial bill legalising
same-sex marriage and adoption. On Friday, the Constitutional Council of France rejected a challenge by the right-wing opposition (the UMP party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy), giving Hollande the green light to sign the bill.
According to a BBC report, the Constitutional Council ruled that the bill "did not run contrary to any constitutional principles," and that it did not infringe on "basic rights or liberties or national sovereignty.”
It also stressed the child’s interests would come first in adoption cases, cautioning that the legalisation of same-sex adoption will not automatically mean the "right to a child".
According to the BBC, the first gay wedding could take place 10 days after the bill's signing, however, Parliamentary Relations Minister, Alain Vidalies, told French television he expected the first ceremonies to take place "before 1 July".
The news caused a still among Catholics in France who took to the streets on Friday to protest against the ruling. The anti-same-sex marriage lobby, backed by the Catholic Church and conservative opposition, says the bill will undermine an essential building block of society, the BBC wrote.
Opinion polls suggest 55-60% of French people support same-sex marriage, but only about 50% agree same-sex couples should have the right to adopt.
But which countries will be the next dominoes to fall, so to speak, now that same-sex marriage efforts seem to be picking up the pace?
France is the ninth country in Europe to allow same sex marriage, according to CNN, and it looks likely New Zealand and Uruguay will soon enact laws to legalise it too.
The first same-sex couples tied the knot in the Netherlands in 2001, with others in Canada, South Africa, Belgium and Spain following suit, CNN reports.
The Pope’s home country, Argentina, was the first Latin American nation to legalize same-sex marriages, in 2010. Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden are expected to legalise it too.
However, other countries such as Brazil and the U.S. remain split over the issue.
According to CNN, 12 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriage.