French senators have approved a bill which will give gay couples the right to marry and adopt children.
The ‘Marriage For All’ bill was approved by a show of hands after minor amendments earlier today. Senators had voted in favour of the bill’s key measure on Wednesday by 179 votes to 157.
The vote is now certain to enter law, the BBC reports, after an additional vote before the National Assembly in May.
French Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira said the vote had improved French society “by granting the simple recognition of full citizenship to homosexual couples”.
The ‘Marriage For All’ bill has had a turbulent passages towards the statute books, provoking several demonstrations both for and against the measure in Paris. A demonstration yesterday claimed that opponents of the bill were homophobes. This followed disturbances at an earlier demonstration in March against the bill, when police fired tear gas at protestors.
