Lesbian couple beat France's same-sex marriage ban

Same-sex marriage isn't allowed in France but a lesbian couple managed to tie the knot on Saturday all the same.

Newlyweds Stéphanie (left) and Elise (screenshot from BFM TV)

The two women were allowed to say "I do" in a civil ceremony at the Town Hall in the eastern city of Nancy because, legally, one of them is still a man.

As the free daily 20 minutes reports Stéphanie Nicot was actually born Stéphane and although the 59-year-old has undergone a sex change she has refused to provide the documentation to the French authorities to have her gender changed on the register of births, marriages and deaths.

That meant Nancy's deputy mayor, Olivier Husson, was able to perform a ceremony between Stéphanie and her 27-year-old partner Elise that was in his words "both respectful and legal".

"As required by law we checked the status of both partners," he told the all-news channel i>Télé.

"The records showed that the application to marry had been made by a man and a woman," he continued.

"The procureur de la Republique (district attorney's office or public prosecutor) - whose permission was needed - didn't object and so the marriage was allowed to go ahead."

The apparent contradiction of a law which doesn't recognise same-sex marriages but which allowed Saturday's marriage to take place wasn't lost on Nicot, as she told a press conference afterwards.

"Paradoxically in discriminating against us the system has also granted us the most beautiful of gifts," she said.

"The situation is a little crazy but it also serves as a symbol for all the millions of gays and lesbians in France who would like to have the same right (to marry)."

In January France's constitutional council upheld a ban on same-sex marriage ruling that it was "in keeping with the constitution" and that decision means that only parliament can change the law.

Later this week the opposition Socialist party will take advantage of parliamentary time reserved for private members' bills to debate same-sex marriage in the National Assembly.

Friday's French music break - Catherine Lara's "Avec le temps"

A new feature and an excuse to share with readers some popular French music - a mixture of proven standards that just about everyone in France knows, covers that add that little extra to what has gone before, and brand spanking new songs from "upcoming artists" as they're usually described.

After all, what better way is there to start the weekend?

Catherine Lara (screenshot from video on official website and OFF TV)

And it's proof, as if anyone really needed it, that the world of popular music has more - much more - to offer than songs sung in English.

Yes of course we all know that, but it's easy to forget when the airwaves are choc-a-bloc of songs influenced by, or sung primarily in, English.

There's nowt wrong with them - far from it. But it's almost as though for many nothing exists outside.

This won't redress the imbalance: it's not really meant to.

But it'll highlight some of what France has had, and continues, to offer.

To get things rolling - a remake. And a rather surprising one at that.

It comes from Catherine Lara, a singer-songwriter whose main success came from hits in the 1980s.

That doesn't mean she has slipped into musical oblivion since - far from it.

Lara has released over 20 studio albums, continued arranging and composing for both television and theatre and appears regularly along with a host of other French singers and performers on the annual charity show Les Restos du coeur.

With her trademark tinted glasses and shock of silver white hair, the 65-year-old has never made any secret of her sexuality and was one of the first artists in France to declare openly that she was a lesbian.

Never far from Lara's side is her violin, an instrument she took up as a child and continued studying right through to her twenties at the conservatoire national de Paris.

Her most recent album, released in March 2011, pays tribute to one of France's most respected singer-songerwriters Léo Ferré, whose songs are among the best known and most often covered in this country.

"Avec le temps" is one such song and even though countless artists have tried to recapture the magic of the original, often with mixed results, Lara adds something...different.



Lara will next be heard by millions in France when she sits alongside TV and radio presenter Laurent Boyer next weekend as a co-commentator for French viewers of that annual "musical" (use the term very lightly) fest the Eurovision Song Contest.

It should be interesting to hear what the 1986 winner of the French equivalent of a Grammy, Le Victoire de la musique, makes of Amaury Vassili - this country's entry - and the other 24 finalists.

For the moment though, sit back and listen to Lara's interpretation of Ferré's "Avec le temps" and enjoy.

Catherine Lara sings "Avec le temps"

Just for a comparison - here's the original

French support gay parents' adoption rights

According to a survey carried out by BVA for the television channel Canal +, 57 per cent of those questioned think gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to adopt while 41 per cent are against.

In a similar poll carried out three years ago only 48 per cent of the French were in favour of gay couples having the right to adopt.

Coming just days after a court in the eastern French town of Besançon overruled a regional assembly's decision which had prevented a 48-year-old lesbian from adopting child, the issue on whether same-sex couples should be allowed to adopt now seems to be a matter of public debate.

Reaction to the latest survey from the governing centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) party came swiftly as its leader, Xavier Bertrand, was the invited guest on the Canal + early morning news magazine, La Matinale.

And as far as Bertrand was concerned there would be no change in his party's opposition to allowing same-sex couples to adopt.

"There's a lot of talk today about the right to have a child, but for me the priority has to be the rights of the child," he said.

"In a society where there's constant upheaval and change a child needs to have a point of reference, and that means having a mother and a father," he added.

While Bertrand's views might reflect those of many in his party, there are others who at least want the issue debated.

Most notably the junior minister for family, Nadine Morano, who said on national radio earlier in the week that while there were no government plans to change the law, it was nonetheless something that warranted discussion.

"The debate needs to be opened," she said.

"Why not during the next presidential election in 2012?" she added.

"France needs to deal with its hypocrisy," she continued, perhaps a reference to the fact that adoption by single gay men or lesbians is allowed in France and there are currently 30,000 children living in single-parent gay families.

Another member of the government, Hervé Morin, who is leader of the centre-right Nouveau Centre (New Centre) and also the French defence minister went further saying that he was in favour of homosexual couples being allowed to adopt.