Mayor refuses to marry women
Complaint lodged with prefect after Amandine and Angélique are refused a wedding because of religious conviction
TWO women have launched a complaint after their mayor refused to marry them as she opposed the law on gay marriage.
The women, known only as Amandine and Angélique, have written the prefect and Marie-Claude Bompard, the mayor of Bollène (Vaucluse), asking again to be married in Bollène on September 10.
Right-winger Ms Bompard had met the women and told them that because of her religious convictions she would not marry them. When the women asked if she could delegate another council officer to perform the ceremony she refused.
Speaking on RTL radio, Amandine said that they had received an offer from a mayor 50km away, in Saint-Saturnin-lès-Avignon, to marry them but she added: “Now we are angry and we are going to go all the way. But, logically, we should not have to do so. The mayor has a civic duty and not a religious one. She is totally outside the law: we still live in a republic!”
Ms Bompard, whose husband Jacques is mayor of Orange and who has also refused to marry homosexuals, said: “I am not against homosexuals but against the law.” She said she would have no problem if an opposition councillor wanted to carry out the marriage ceremony.
