Gays France: How gay marriage transformed the French gay rights movement.

Contents:

• TEN YEARS OF GAY MARRIAGE FRANCE: SAME-SEX UPL REFLECT ON A OF CHANGE
• 08 MAR 2013 FRANCE EMBRAC GAY MARRIAGE
• FRANCE SE 7,000 GAY MARRIAG LAST YEAR
• FRANCE'S GAY MARRIAGE FIGHT
• FIRST GAY MARRIAGE CELEBRATED FRANCE
• GAY MARRIAGE CLARED LEGAL ACROSS THE US HISTORIC SUPREME URT LG
• NAMIBIAN MPS BACK ANTI-GAY LAW SPE SUPREME COURT LG
• FRANCE’S GAYS ARE ASSIATG. WHAT COM NEXT?
• THE MANY LOURS OF MARRIAGE: GAY MARRIAGE FRANCE

TEN YEARS OF GAY MARRIAGE FRANCE: SAME-SEX UPL REFLECT ON A OF CHANGE

The anti-gay marriage movement, Manif Pour To (or Prott For All), mounted a fierce mpaign agast the measure, at one pot claimg to have drawn 1. This is more than before the adoptn of same-sex marriage when Insee unted an average of 5, 762 civil unns of homosexual upl per year (between 1999 and 2012). Persistent difficulti startg a fay The legalizatn of same-sex marriage has ma possible for married homosexual upl to adopt a child, whereas civil unns did not allow them to do so.

But this remas limed: Sce 2013, the Associatn of Gay and Lbian Parents (APGL) timat, based on s own cens and the rults of a number of surveys, that only 200 same-sex parentg fai have succeed adoptg (wards of the Natn and children born abroad clud). Try for ee This figure is nsistent wh that of a report by the French Mistry of Jtice, which unted, for the year 2018, only eighteen plenary adoptns by homosexual upl. Nilas Faget, a spokperson for the APGL, told Le Mon that homosexual upl faced difficulti foundg a fay: The procs is lengthy and adoptn is still forbidn some untri.

Sce the adoptn of a bethics law 2021, and the openg of medilly assisted procreatn to homosexual upl, the procre is simplified.

08 MAR 2013 FRANCE EMBRAC GAY MARRIAGE

This is the se other "Catholic" untri like Spa and Portugal, which have recently adopted gay marriage.

FRANCE SE 7,000 GAY MARRIAG LAST YEAR

Ined the absence of long-lastg ntroversy over the issue Spa and Portugal is often adduced as an argument by supporters of gay marriage France. However - as a study by the liberal French thk-tank the Thomas More Foundatn has noted - Spa and Portugal people who oppose gay marriage n ntue to get married church, ntent wh the feelg that "their" marriage has nothg to do wh the civil one anised by the state and now open to gay people.

Even wh France’s unique legal approach to marriage ntracts, opn polls show that approximately 55 to 60 percent of French people support gay marriage. Although this support drops somewhat for gay adoptn, the legislatn supportg gay adoptn remaed as part of the bill approved by the Assembly.

FRANCE'S GAY MARRIAGE FIGHT

About 7, 000 same-sex upl tied the knot France last year after gay marriage was legalised May, the natnal statistics agency said Tuday. France legalised same-sex marriage after months of tense and sometim vlent protts, keepg wh an electn pledge by Socialist Print François Hollan, who faced a huge backlash om the right and the powerful Catholic unns ma up around three percent of all marriag registered France 2013, France’s Insee statistics agency out of every five gay marriag volved male upl, average age at which gay men got married was 50, while was 43 for women. 3 years mixed marriag, Insee first gay marriage France was held on May 29 the southern cy of Montpellier, which has a gay-iendly reputatn.

FIRST GAY MARRIAGE CELEBRATED FRANCE

Contued opposnBut many die-hard nservativ have ntued to oppose the mayors argue that the lack of an optn not to perform gay marriag vlat the French nstutn, which stipulat that eedom of nscience is a fundamental human right. Several have refed to nduct gay marriag on the grounds go agast their beliefs, but the Constutnal Council, France's top urt, has led they nnot do this. Two weeks ago, French opponents of gay marriage and adoptn staged one of the biggt monstratns of popular feelg that the untry has seen 340, 000 people, acrdg to police, marched through central Paris to oppose a ernment bill that go before the Natnal Assembly on Tuday.

Supporters of gay marriage have staged their own shows of strength, and believe they have public opn on their si.

GAY MARRIAGE CLARED LEGAL ACROSS THE US HISTORIC SUPREME URT LG

This weekend some 125, 000 rallied Paris, police is the sle of the "manif pour to", agast gay marriage and adoptn, that took many outsi observers by surprise. But there are a uple of other factors pchFirst, the antis have n an telligent and media-savvy the start they regnised the dangers of beg seen as the twchg arm of reactnary they have ma sure they nstute a broad-based "cizens" movement, wh no formal lks to church or ptn, Observers have been surprised that so many people me out public opposn to gay marriageAnd their spokwoman - a performer who go by the psdonym Frigi Barjot - opponents of gay marriage have found a perfect antidote to charg that they are superannuated bigots. A 50-year-old, blon-haired extrovert who scrib herself as an "anarchist of love", Barjot has bee a natnal figure recent weeks, wh nstant appearanc on rad and tak re at every terview to state that her arguments are not directed at gay people, but at the proposed law, as amed.

"If what was on offer were a law that further enshred rights for gay upl, that enriched their unns, and got rid of the discrimatns and jtic that undoubtedly still exist - then I would support , " she says. Everybody affectedThe other reason why gay marriage has provoked such a powerful bate France has to do wh the nature of the untry's is practilly unique Europe makg obligatory, for upl who marry, to do so a civil ceremony, wh potential jail terms for prits who nduct a relig ceremony other untri, prits, rabbis or imams who rry out weddgs are also actg as civil officials, and the marriage nducted church, synagogue or mosque is duly registered ptn, "We read the Bible gaily": gay marriage supporters at a march StrasbourgThis is the se other "Catholic" untri like Spa and Portugal, which have recently adopted gay marriage.

However - as a study by the liberal French thk-tank the Thomas More Foundatn has noted - Spa and Portugal people who oppose gay marriage n ntue to get married church, ntent wh the feelg that "their" marriage has nothg to do wh the civil one anised by the state and now open to gay France, there n be no such separatn.

NAMIBIAN MPS BACK ANTI-GAY LAW SPE SUPREME COURT LG

The civil marriage France is pulsory, and so if there is a change the civil on marriage, affects, this may help expla why so many people feel so strongly about the antis have certaly been embolned by the succs of their 13 January Friday they were received at the Elysee Palace, where they rtated to Print Hollan their sistence that the issue be put to a argue that to extend full-blown marriage to gay people is to play sorcerer's apprentice wh the most important buildg-block of say that the right to gay adoptn will remove om children the fundamental right to have a father and a mother. However for all the sprg their stri, opponents of gay marriage are also aware that their chanc of blockg France's law are small at reason is that gay marriage was clearly prented Print Hollan's electn manifto last May.

The French people nnot argue that has been foisted upon them ptn, The BBC's Hugh Schofield: "The march anisers do not want to be typest as homophobic"And for the print - who is unr prsure on the enomic ont for not beg sufficiently left-wg - stickg to gay marriage is a eful way of burnishg his progrsive the bigger reason why the anti movement will have difficulty buildg on their momentum is that gay marriage is actually supported by most of the is not a huge majory, but polls are nsistent showg that around 55-60% believe is the right thg to do.

)Over the weekend, monstratns took place Paris and across France support of the ernment's the arguments favour of gay marriage got their outg: that is a logil exprsn of equaly; that is jt; that there is no evince of leadg to a breakdown society; that children brought up by gay upl are perfectly happy; that such children already exist by the tens of thoand so need legal regnn; that heterosexual marriage is hardly sacrosanct when so many end divorce, and when so many children are born out of a young woman lled Magali at Sunday's monstratn Paris put : "When I see the people who prott agast gay marriage, I am jt so disappoted for France. Sce the first same-sex marriag took place the Netherlands 2001, more than 30 other jurisdictns have enacted laws allowg gays and lbians to marry, mostly Europe and the Ameris.

FRANCE’S GAYS ARE ASSIATG. WHAT COM NEXT?

Ecuador 2019Lat Ameri-CaribbeanCourt lg ma Ecuador the fifth South Amerin untry to allow gays and lbians to wed. Netherlands2001EuropeFirst untry to legalize same-sex marriage after Parliament passed the law December Zealand 2013Asia-PacificFirst untry the Asia-Pacific regn to allow gays and lbians to 2009EuropeThe law replaced a 1993 statute permtg civil unns. Slovenia 2022EuropeFirst untry formerly munist Eastern Europe to legalize same-sex Ai 2006Sub-Saharan AiOnly Ain untry where same-sex marriage is legal; several untri on the ntent have passed laws that ban homosexualy recent 2005EuropeBeme the third untry globally to legalize same-sex marriage after a vote s closely divid 2009EuropeGay and lbian upl Swen prevly had been allowed to register for civil unns sce 1995.

1%) st ballots favor of legalizg same-sex marriage a 2021 2019Asia-PacificA urt lg prompted a change the law that ma Taiwan the first jurisdictn Asia to perm gays and lbians to Kgdom 2014EuropeLegal same-sex marriage took effect Northern Ireland 2020, six years after the change England and Wal.

Dpe support for the reform Montpellier, which boasts of beg France's most gay-iendly town, officials scrapped plans to broadst the weddg live on a giant TV screen and stead beamed live onle to the cy's webse. "Love each other, love , love one another, bee 's important, " said Aut om a balny to a crowd of hundreds of well-wishers outsi the cy hall, addg the next step would be a law allowg gay upl to adopt children. Backed by a slim majory of French and feted by gay men and lbians when me to force this month, a law makg France the 14th untry to allow same-sex marriage has triggered street protts by nservativ, Catholics and extreme right-wgers.

THE MANY LOURS OF MARRIAGE: GAY MARRIAGE FRANCE

" Frigi Barjot, a pk-clad edian who leads the anti-gay marriage movement, has urged her supporters to stay away om Wednday's weddg and exprsed ncern at right-wgers who have hurled bricks, bottl and firecrackers durg march. Earlier, French Interr Mister Manuel Valls pledged to toughen penalti for homophobic behavr, cg an crease the number of threats agast gay people on onle foms. " Homosexualy, still a crime some 78 untri, has been legal France sce the Revolutn, and the age of nsent was lowered to that of heterosexual relatns 1981.

Aut, 40, and Boile, 29, were the first gay uple to apply to marry as Print Hollan was phg through the law, which grants equal marriage and adoptn rights that go beyond existg l for civil partnerships.

Aut proposed by phong Boile at work September ont of cy officials who had jt announced that Montpellier would host the first gay weddg. Sce then, ralli that are partly fuelled by anger at the ernment over other issu like the enomy appear to have erod support for the gay marriage law; now stands at 53 percent, wh 47 percent opposed, reflectg a ep natnal divisn, particularly over the adoptn rights clus. Last week, one opponent of gay marriage shot himself ad at the altar of Paris's Notre Dame thedral and on Sunday hundreds of thoands marched the pal to mand the law's repeal.