France’s new president Francois Hollande has long pledged to legalize marriage equality and same-sex adoption rights. Now, the country’s new Socialist government has vowed to make it happen.

Yesterday, France’s junior minister for families Dominique Bertinotti said that laws for marriage and adoption equality would be passed within a year. The prime minister did not confirm the time frame, but said that laws would indeed be implemented. The government will also begin discussions in the fall about rights for trans people. 

A law granting full marriage status to gay couples would bring France, which currently provides only for same-sex civil unions, into line with fellow EU members Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden.

It would also mark a profound change in French society, where more than two-thirds of people still describe themselves as Roman Catholic, according to a 2010 survey by pollster Ifop.

As the Reuters article above points out, this is a popular idea with some people in France, but certainly not everyone. Still, the change in government makes it more and more likely that positive changes are coming. Hooray!