Crooked Timber has a fascinating post on the effect of introducing civil unions in France. These are open to everyone, not just gays and lesbians. The result of this policy has been a substantial decrease in the number of people getting married, but a substantial increase in the number of people entering government-sanctioned relationships of one kind or the other.
It is hard to interpret what this means without more knowledge of French law. For example, it may be the case that opting for one of these pac contracts is the only way that French people can avoid a religious wedding. Also, as Henry Farrell notes in the post, the pac is easier to dissolve than a marriage, and that may be a powerful selling point.
(Mes amis français, veuillez commenter.)
Nevertheless it does seem that if you are a Christianist (thanks for the word, Jay) you should be more afraid of allowing straight people to opt out of marriage than of allowing teh gays to opt in. And if you are a social conservative (hello, Mr. Cameron) you should be looking at simplifying government-sanctioned relationships as the best way to encourage people to enter into them.
In my experience all French weddings are primarily civil, with an optional religious celebration held separately, so can’t see this as the only way to avoid a religious wedding.
We have Dutch friends, now living in London, who went through the French procedure because it was the easiest way of dealing with French bureaucracy who weren’t prepared to consider them a couple otherwise.
A straight friend in Finland told me that because he and his girlfriend live together (not sure the time limit) the government considers them married and so they have to file their taxes together. If they were both men, it wouldn’t count. So there’s another spin on the “simplifying” idea that doesn’t benefit LTBG folks . . .
Honestly, I didn’t think enough about what the legal implications were before my husband and I got married, and now I’m miffed that I may get penalized financially if we don’t file our taxes jointly. At least I don’t get taxed on his health insurance. What a tangled web we weave . . .
V: can, not have to. Married couples don’t need to file joint taxes if they don’t want to. And the togetherness of the taxes is anyway quite limited.