France Speeds Up Marriage Bill

After yesterday's final passage by the French Senate, the marriage equality bill was supposed to go back to the Assembly for reconciliation on May 20th, allowing opponents more than a month to scream, rage, and plot to thwart it. Well, them haters better get to plottin', because the Assembly is getting the bill in five days.

The ruling Socialists said the bill would return to the National Assembly by Wednesday - far earlier than the expected date of May 20. Opponents accused them of seeking to rush through the law, with the head of the right-wing UMP's faction in the assembly, Christian Jacob, saying President Francois Hollande was "risking a violent confrontation with the French people" over the bill. Senators had earlier approved crucial articles of the bill granting gay couples the right to marry and to adopt. Christiane Taubira, the justice minister, hailed the Senate vote, saying it had strengthened French society "by granting the simple recognition of full citizenship to homosexual couples".

Opponents have said that they will hold another massive demonstration on May 26th, but that plan, obviously, will likely change.