French billwould make same- sex marriage legal

PARIS — French President Francois Hollande delivered on a controversial campaign pledge Wednesday, sending to the legislature a bill that would legalize same- sex marriage in Europe’s second mostpopulous nation.

Hollande’s Cabinet approved the draft “marriage for all” bill, which would give same- sex couples the same legal rights in France as heterosexual ones, including the ability to adopt children. Lawmakers are set to examine the measure in Parliament in mid- January.

The proposal was declared a historic event by many French media organizations and comes 31years after the nation’s government rejected medical designations ofhomosexuality as a mental illness. The new bill was unveiled hours after voters on the other side of the Atlantic, in Maryland and Maine, approved samesexmarriage measures.

Hollande hailed the bill as a sign of “progress not only for a few, but for the whole of society.”

“It’s an important step toward equal rights for all,” said Dominique Bertinotti, minister in charge of family issues, as she left the Cabinet meeting Wednesday.

“We don’t take anything away from heterosexual couples,” Bertinotti added. “We enlarge and give the possibility for same- sex couples to have the same rights and, I repeat, the same duties.”

However, the bill is running into serious opposition in this traditionally Roman Catholic country, and Hollande’s Socialist government is bracing for a difficult public debate, even though the political left holds a majority in both houses of Parliament.