On May 29, 2013, the first same-sex marriage took place in France in Montpellier. In front of media cameras around the world. A marriage under tension after months of opposition in the street and in the National Assembly. 10 years later, marriage for all has entered the mores of French society.
It’s been ten years since the first marriage for all was celebrated in France… and in Montpellier.
On May 29, 2013, Bruno Boileau and Vincent Autin became the first homosexual couple to marry in France. On Twitter, many accounts share this moment “Ten years ago the law marriage for all took shape with the union of Bruno and Vincent in Montpellier”.
Indeed, after months of heated debates in the streets and on the benches of the National Assembly, the law “marriage for all” which authorizes marriage for persons of the same sex is adopted.
A few weeks later, in Montpellier, this law is embodied in the faces of Bruno Boileau and Vincent Autin. On May 29, 2013, media from around the world attended their wedding for history.
First we intended to unite to build a family. And then there was everything beyond us, that is to say that we found ourselves embodying a law and inaugurating it.
Vincent Austin
The marriage takes place only twelve days after the promulgation of the law.
A record time made possible by the mobilization of the services of the town hall of Montpellier and the will of Hélène Mandroux, then socialist mayor of the city, engaged for a long time in the fight for equal rights.
“After the wedding, we went out on the balcony of the town hall. I can still see this crowded square where all these men and women were applauding”, remembers the former mayor.
70,000 marriages
Since the promulgation of the law, more than 70,000 marriages of same-sex couples have been celebrated in France.
We won the fight because it is a fight. Unfortunately, like all progressive laws, even if it is difficult to go back on it, we must remain vigilant because we know very well that a right acquired, and dearly acquired, we risk seeing it disappear, it can go very very quickly .
The first couple divorced after seven years of marriage. Vincent Autin now lives in Switzerland, with his new companion.
A wink of fate: he settled there at the very moment when the country voted to grant the right to marriage for all.
Written with Carine Alazet.