Paris, France, Mar 16, 2007 / 06:18 am
France's highest court upheld the definition of marriage to be the union between a man and a woman, this week, and rejected as unlawful the first marriage of a homosexual couple in France.
The court annulled the marriage of Stephane Charpin and Bertrand Charpentier, who were “married” in a civil ceremony in June 2004. Following the attempted marriage, the government immediately said the union was outside the law and the couple began pursuing legal recognition by way of the courts.
Successive courts ruled against the couple. The magistrates pointed out that France already grants cohabiting couples, regardless of their sex, certain rights enjoyed by married couples. The rights, they said, have been legalized since legislation was passed in1999 which legalized civil unions, known as Partes Civil de Solidarité (PacS).
No other same-sex couple has attempted to be married in France since 2004.
A commission formed by the President of the French National Assembly advised in 2006 that marriage, adoption and artificial procreation for homosexual couples should not be permitted under French law, reported LifeSite.
The commission’s final report argued that gay marriage would necessarily open the way to gay adoption. “Marriage is not merely the contractual recognition of the love between a couple; it is a framework that imposes rights and duties, and that is designed to provide for the care and harmonious development of the child,” the report says.
The commission also concluded that marriage has a natural procreative element. "This corresponds to a biological reality, that same-sex couples are naturally infertile, and to an imperative, that of helping the child develop his/her identity as necessarily coming from the union of a man and a woman,” the report stated.
The commission concluded that its ultimate decision to advise against gay marriage and adoption was meant “to affirm and protect children’s rights and the primacy of those rights over adults’ aspirations.”