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Like the bagel food? Like the Beagle dog? Anyhow...it's good news from there, at any rate!
First Gay Couple Marries in France
Sun Jun 6, 7:36 AM ET
By PIERRE SAUVEY, Associated Press Writer
BEGLES, France - A gay couple said "oui" for the first time in France, days after the prime minister warned that the homosexual union would be legally "null and void."
Stephane Chapin, dressed in a white suit and dabbing tears of joy from his eyes, and Bertrand Charpentier, in deep gray pinstripes, embraced, kissed and smiled broadly Saturday after the brief civil ceremony in the Begles town hall in southwestern France, near Bordeaux.
The justice minister quickly said that the Bordeaux court would be petitioned to declare the marriage null, while the interior minister said the mayor who performed the ceremony — a Green party politician known as a provocateur — would be sanctioned.
Begles Mayor Noel Mamere defiantly wore the blue, white and red ribbons — France's national colors — that are conferred on mayors as representatives of the state and used during all official functions.
In France, mayors perform civil marriages, which are required by law.
"I regret nothing," he said later.
Mamere, choked with emotion, said his decision to marry the two men despite a multitude of warnings was a gesture in the name of tolerance.
"This is not a media operation," Mamere said, adding that he performed the marriage as a gesture toward all those who suffer discrimination "for their skin color, their religion, their social status and also their sexual orientation."
Cameras were trained on the couple during the ceremony as about 500 demonstrators, some for and some against the marriage, stood outside, cheering or denouncing the union.
Justice Minister Dominique Perben said in a statement that he had asked that the Bordeaux court be immediately petitioned to declare the marriage null. A probe will be opened "to determine the conditions by which the marriage was carried out" if the marriage act was officially transcribed in the Begles civil register, he said.
Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin noted that the mayor of Begles "represents the state."
Mamere "has decided, in contradiction with the rules of the civil code ... to celebrate a marriage between two people of the same sex ... He has, therefore, broken the law," de Villepin said in a statement.
De Villepin said he would take sanctions against Mamere.
"It is not a question of entering the heart of the debate," de Villepin said. "But I intend to have the law and the authority of the state respected."
Mamere dismissed the ministers' statements as politically motivated ahead of June 13 legislative elections, and suggested he was ready to take the matter to court.
"I'll wait until someone proves that I've made a mistake," Mamere said. "That can be pleaded. I regret nothing. I will continue. I'm here to defend equal rights."
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said that France's civil code "neither permits nor authorizes the marriage of two people of the same sex."
"If such a manifestation were to take place, it could not be qualified as a marriage," Raffarin told lawmakers. "It would be an illegal manifestation, null in law and null in effect."
Mamere risks a month's suspension from his post as mayor and a fine of up to euro1,504.50 (US$1,835.50), according to the Justice Ministry and the prime minister's office. The Cabinet could take the matter further and issue a decree revoking the title of mayor, but officials have stressed that such a move is rare, indeed.
"Always forgive your enemies...nothing annoys them quite so much." Oscar Wilde
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