France: Marriage In October?

Yesterday France's ruling Socialist Party announced that it will submit a same-sex marriage bill in October.

"In October, we will send a bill to the National Assembly and the Senate to allow same-sex couples to marry," French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Saturday in an address to Socialist Party members at their annual gathering in the Atlantic port town of La Rochelle. "It would also allow them to form families and adopt children," Mr. Ayrault added. Mr. Hollande's Socialist Party controls both houses of Parliament, rendering the passage of a gay-marriage bill more likely.

Religious groups are expected to fiercely oppose the bill in the national legislature. However the Socialists hold more than half of the seats there as well.