It's hard to get a lease in two men's names. The PaCS changes that. With gay marriage as unpopular in France as it is in the United States, the law's champions bent over backward to assure the nation that the PaCS creates a new status under the law, not homosexual marriage. Gay marriage may be possible in the future, but for now it's not acceptable. The PaCS is a legal path to addressing the realities of homosexual couples.
Marriage is a religious institution.
The law also makes registered partners liable for each other's debts and contracts. First proposed in 1992, a version of the PaCS was voted down as recently as October 1998. Bloche, who is also vice mayor of Paris's 11th arrondissement, is among the heroes of this long, historic conflict. His tenacity, political savvy, and legislative strategy are credited with the law's ultimate passage despite the opposition of social conservatives, the political right, and Catholic activists. A year ago this coalition rallied 100,000 people from throughout the country to march on Paris.