As the battle over C-38 winds down in Canada, the fight for equal marriage is just starting to gather steam in France.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a Socialist member of the French National Assembly (and avid blogger), reports on the Paris gay pride march:

Les revendications de cette ann?©e sont “Couples et parentalit?©s : ?©galit?© maintenant !”. Vous le savez, j’ai pris position l’an pass?© pour l’ouverture du mariage pour les couples de m?™me sexe et pour donner la possibilit?© aux homosexuels d’adopter – qu’ils soient seuls ou en couple – sans discrimination. Cela n?©cessite, j’en ai bien conscience, un large d?©bat afin que les mentalit?©s ?©voluent, y compris dans nos rangs.

Roughly translated: “This year’s demand is Couples and parents: equality now! As you know, I took a stand last year to open marriage to same-sex couples and to allow homosexual couples and individuals to adopt children, without discrimination. I’m well aware that needs a major debate before people’s thinking evolves — including within our own ranks.”

Have a look, and check out the debate carried on in the comments following his post. I’m especially impressed with how seriously he clearly takes the blog, and his visitors; his staff members give initial responses and, while they have the power to moderate (i.e. delete or edit) comments, they rarely use it. There’s a free-flowing discussion, and very little response to the few obvious attempts at trolling.

Update: Meanwhile, Spain joins our happy little band. From the CBC:

“We were not the first, but I am sure we will not be the last,” Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told the chamber. “After us will come many other countries, driven, ladies and gentlemen, by two unstoppable forces: freedom and equality.”