Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Same-sex marriage in France?

L found this blog post online yesterday and while it's several months old at this point (from June of this year), I thought it was worth sharing.  About a decade ago, one of my professors at Duke predicted that transgender folks would end up being the ones who win us all the right to marry.  This story is just one more piece of evidence to support that prediction.  Stéphanie Nicot and her partner Elise were legally married by the town's mayor because according to official records, Stéphanie was born as Stéphane.  While she had undergone sex reassignment surgery, she was still listed as male in the official government registry.

http://digitaljournal.com/blog/11896
http://www.20minutes.fr/societe/736211-stephanie-elise-dit-oui

Kudos to the happy couple for using the country's laws to their advantage.  While France, as of this writing, still does not allow same-sex couples to marry, they do allow a form of civil union called a pacte civil de solidarité, or PACS.  As we learn more about the rights and responsibilities I will post a longer update about what a PACS means for our everyday life and beyond. 

- E

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