French mayors must perform weddings for all couples who have the legal right to marry, including same-sex couples, the High Court there has ruled.
Pink News reports:
A law recognising equal marriage took effect in May, but several mayors rejected it as a matter of “conscience”. Earlier this summer Jean-Michel Colo, the mayor of Arcangues, in south-west France, refused to marry a gay couple and said “I will go to the gallows” in order to defy the law. However, the Constitutional Council ruled on Friday that the law does not provide a “conscience clause” for its opponents. “The council judged that, in view of the functions of a state official in the officiating of a marriage, the legislation does not violate their freedom of conscience,” it said in a statement.
If they don’t like the law, they can either try to change it, or not be Mayor anymore.
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