Trendy French Straights Have Co-Opted Civil Unions

Posted on Dec 16, 2010

Flickr / kikasso (CC-BY)

Last year 95 percent of France’s civil unions (known as pactes civil de solidarité) were signed by heterosexual couples, according to the New York Times. Apparently the French—and not just the gays for whom the process was conceived—have taken to the more relaxed unions that still offer many of the financial benefits of marriage.

New York Times:

When France created its system of civil unions in 1999, it was heralded as a revolution in gay rights, a relationship almost like marriage, but not quite. No one, though, anticipated how many couples would make use of the new law. Nor was it predicted that by 2009, the overwhelming majority of civil unions would be between straight couples.

It remains unclear whether the idea of a civil union, called a pacte civil de solidarité, or PACS, has responded to a shift in social attitudes or caused one. But it has proved remarkably well suited to France and its particularities about marriage, divorce, religion and taxes — and it can be dissolved with just a registered letter.

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