Gay rights France: After marriage equaly, what's next? - French nnectns

Contents:

• NAMIBIAN MPS BACK ANTI-GAY LAW SPE SUPREME COURT LG
• GAY MARRIAGE BROUGHT EQUALY TO FRANCE WHILE GIVG RISE TO HOMOPHOBIA
• 08 MAR 2013 FRANCE EMBRAC GAY MARRIAGE
• FIRST GAY MARRIAGE CELEBRATED FRANCE
• GAY MARRIAGE
• GAY RIGHTS FRANCE: AFTER MARRIAGE EQUALY, WHAT'S NEXT?
• WHERE EUROPE STANDS ON GAY MARRIAGE AND CIVIL UNNS

NAMIBIAN MPS BACK ANTI-GAY LAW SPE SUPREME COURT LG

(Rters) - Marchers filed through the French pal on Sunday to prott agast Print Franis Hollan’s plan to legalize gay marriage and is a timele on marriage and the rights of homosexuals France. 1995 - Sat Nazaire be the first cy to allow homosexuals to register as ncub, a legal ncept allowg limed shared rights for unmarried upl livg together. 2001 - Bertrand Delanoe, a Socialist who was one of the first French policians to publicly clare his homosexualy, is elected mayor of Paris.

It matas that extendg those rights to gay upl would vlate the Uned Natns Conventn on the Rights of the Child, which France has signed.

GAY MARRIAGE BROUGHT EQUALY TO FRANCE WHILE GIVG RISE TO HOMOPHOBIA

In November, the bet approv a draft law allowg same-sex marriage wh adoptn rights that will be prented to parliament on January 292013 - On January 13, Catholics, nservativ, Mlims, evangelils and homosexuals opposed to same-sex marriage march Paris the first major street prott agast Print Franis Hollan. The French parliament has approved a bill legalisg same-sex marriage and adoptn, followg a divisive public be the 14th untry to pass a law allowg gay marriage, and follows New Zealand last week. Opponents of the move have staged some of the biggt protts seen France years, though polls suggt a small majory favour of gay marriage.

08 MAR 2013 FRANCE EMBRAC GAY MARRIAGE

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.

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.

Adam* said was dangero to e out as gay his home untry and feared beg forced to an arranged marriage wh a said he was "so lucky" to wed his soulmate, Ray, Manchter and wish everyone uld marry who they love.

FIRST GAY MARRIAGE CELEBRATED FRANCE

There are more than 60 untri wh laws that crimalise same-sex sexual acts acrdg to the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn, cludg Sdi Arabia.

'Authentilly myself'Ray said he had also stggled growg up gay the 1970s and 80s England, which was "tough" said his relig school "dmmed to you, 'you are gog to hell'" Adam returned home to Sdi Arabia, spe beg more than 3, 000 apart and later rtricted by the Covid-19 panmic, they kept touch daily and the romance years ago, Ray proposed on a vio ll and after succsfully applyg for a UK fiancé visa, Adam moved to Manchter December 2022. Adam said he had been aaid to even wear lours his home untry so the first thg he did when he moved was start to "grow my mullet, got my ears pierced and booked appotments for tattoos" relled how, ntrast, one of his gay iends Sdi had been forced to marry a woman, addg: "It has ed not only his life but the life of his wife. The uple, who live London, said a "really betiful memory" was on the way home when one of their sons shouted out of the black b wdow to Trafalgar Square, "My dads jt got married" and cheered "Yay, gay marriage".

The se ma s way to the US Supreme Court, which dismissed an appeal 2013 over same-sex marriage on jurisdictnal grounds, lg private parti did not have standg to fend California’s voter-approved ballot measure barrg gay and lbian upl om state-sanctned wedlock. 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.

GAY MARRIAGE

“Dpe the existence of this law, LGBTQIA+ populatns are still victims of a certa amount of terrible discrimatn today, ” says Vcent Aut, a rights activist, whose weddg was the very first one to be held after the same-sex marriage law took Natnal Assembly voted to legalise gay marriage on 23 April, 2013. 5 hours of often heated bat over several months, hundreds of thoands of people held prott march agast Manif Pour To (Demonstratn For All) anisers, who unified opponents behd blue and pk logos wh imag of children, said they were not agast same-sex marriage self but agast same-sex upl gettg parental protts and the bat parliament brought out a level of homophobia that people prevly kept to themselv.

“We saw an explosn of attacks France when the bat started 2012, ” Aut told rights group SOS homophobie rerd a spike reports of homophobic attacks 2013. Berx remembers marchg 2013 favour of gay marriage, and he married his partner of the time, Beno, 2016, “not exactly the day after the law, " but soon after. In 2016, SOS Homophobie received 26 reports om people who said they had a homophobic, biphobic, or transphobic enunter wh jtice or law enforcement officials.

By this is meant that an officer refed to characterize an asslt as homophobic a plat or to even file a plat, or that a law enforcement officer himself discrimated agast LGBT people.

GAY RIGHTS FRANCE: AFTER MARRIAGE EQUALY, WHAT'S NEXT?

While a majory of the French populatn is favor of allowg same-sex upl to get married and adopt children, opponents of LGBT rights are a “vol mory, ” and are pecially active on social media, where prosecutn for homophobic statements remas difficult to rry out. 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.

WHERE EUROPE STANDS ON GAY MARRIAGE AND CIVIL UNNS

After a long, acrimon bate marked by street monstratns, vlent clash and a rise homophobic attacks, France fally passed a law legalisg same-sex marriag on May 17. "In the se of an tend marriage between two people of the same sex, if one of the spo is a natnal of one of the untri, the state registrar shall not solemnise the marriage, " the statement 11 untri, which have signed agreements wh France, are mostly former Yugoslav republics, where gay marriage is prohibed. ”‘A breach of equaly’Gay rights groups across France have reacted wh dismay to the memo exemptg certa natnals om the 2013 gay marriage and adoptn law.

But, Aud not, such marriag are fact regnised gay rights activists say they plan to hammer out a jot strategy to challenge the ltle-known exceptn to the gay rights law. 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.