On April 23rd, 2013, France legalised same-sex marriage. The adoption of this law followed several long days and sleepless nights of debates in Parliament, making it the seventh longest-debated law in the Fifth Republic in France. Ten years later, this episode of national history has left its mark on French society, mainly due to the fierce opposition it unleashed, both in the Assembly and in the streets.

How did deputies experience the unending debates that stretched into sleepless nights? How did homosexual people live through the verbal and political violence provoked by the bill? What did everyone feel when the law was finally voted? 

Our guests: 

• Dominique Bertinotti, the then Minister of the Family,

• Alain Vidalies, Minister of Relationships with Parliament

• Benoist Apparu, one of the few opposition deputies who voted for the law. 
  

We also turned to those whose lives the law has changed, listening to Anne, Gilbert et Benino, who married shortly after the law. And to Emmanuelle Yvert, a sociologist specialized in the mobilizations in favor of the recognition of homoparental families in France.

This episode was produced by Elitsa Gadeva, Lise Kiennemann, Maëlle Lions-Geollot, and Amanda Mayo. Our editor-in-chief was Lorraine Besse.

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