Far-Right French Printial Candidate Mare Le Pen Has Surprisg Gay Support

Contents:

• HOW MARE LE PEN IS WNG FRANCE’S GAY VOTE
• THIS IS HOW FRANCE’S NATNALIST PARTY IS WNG GAY SUPPORT
• DON’T BE FOOLED BY MARE LE PEN’S GAY PANRG—HER PARTY IS AWFUL FOR LGBTQ EQUALY
• WHY GAY FRENCH MEN ARE VOTG FAR RIGHT
• FROM MARE LE PEN TO THERA MAY, WHY DO WHE GAY MEN NTUE TO SUPPORT RIGHT-WG NDIDAT?
• AHEAD OF HOMOPHOBIA TRIAL, JEAN-MARIE LE PEN OUT OF THE CLOSET ABOUT GAYS
• NOT THE ONN: MOSW BANS GAY PRI FOR NEXT 100 YEARS
• COMMENT MARE LE PEN A FA LA UR X GAYS
• GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI

HOW MARE LE PEN IS WNG FRANCE’S GAY VOTE

PARIS — Far-right French printial Mare Le Pen has a simple a msage she wants to get across to the untry’s gay muny: Cast a vote for her Sunday’s printial electns bee she and her party will protect them om Islamist vlence.

It’s a tough sell for Le Pen, whose platform oppos same-sex marriage and adoptn and whose father — who created the party she now leads — has lled homosexualy a “blogil anomaly” and said those wh HIV should be hoed “AIDS-atoriums. The outreach to France’s LGBTQ voters is another way which Le Pen, currently a distant send to centrist ontnner Emmanuel Macron, is tryg to brg Amerin-style inty polics to France as she works to overe her party’s history of xenophobia, anti-Semism, and homophobia.

THIS IS HOW FRANCE’S NATNALIST PARTY IS WNG GAY SUPPORT

Durg Wednday night’s unually nasty bate wh Macron, Le Pen said her opponent was backed by a French Mlim anizatn that she acced of holdg nferenc featurg speakers who exprs “hatred of Jews” and “hatred of homosexuals.

DON’T BE FOOLED BY MARE LE PEN’S GAY PANRG—HER PARTY IS AWFUL FOR LGBTQ EQUALY

In an April YouTube vio, she said has held events featurg a Mlim cleric who has spoken out “ favor of rporal punishment, the ath penalty for homosexuals, and the assassatn of Jews. It’s not jt rhetoric: Le Pen has also surround herself wh three high-level gay advisers, cludg her right-hand man, Florian Philippot, who is often intified as the archect of her effort to remake her party’s image, and Sébastien Chenu, who was a former foundg member of a gay rights anizatn lled GayLib. Amerin fantasi about French open-mdns toward all thgs sexual asi, a vol mory of French voters are eply unfortable wh the advancements gay men and lbians have ma the past few years.

Legal domtic partnership was available to gay men and lbians — as well as heterosexual upl — sce 1999, but marriage equaly the historilly Catholic untry was far harr to achieve. The issue is so important to nservative voters that printial ndidate François Fillon ran hard to the right on LGBTQ issu, promisg to roll back the law grantg marriage equaly and, ccially, adoptn rights to gay men and lbians. He supports the law givg gay men and lbians the right to marry and adopt, but he has been th far relatively quiet on remag issu — like surrogacy and assisted reproductive technology for gay upl, which remas illegal France, and the right of gay men to donate blood.

He also angered the LGBTQ muny back Febary, when he tried to extend an olive branch to the anti-gay crowd France by sayg he unrstood they felt “huiated” when same-sex marriage passed.

WHY GAY FRENCH MEN ARE VOTG FAR RIGHT

6 percent of married gay men voted for her Natnal Front party regnal electns, but as BuzzFeed not, “that bloc generally skews olr and more nservative than the LGBT populatn as a whole.

The service, the elr Le Pen said, was a tribute “more to the homosexual than the police officer, ” addg that “stutnalized gay marriage and exalted a public way, and that shocked me.

Cathere Michd, a Paris uncil member who directs the gay rights group GayLib, said Le Pen’s platform mak clear “ black and whe that she will roll back some of the rights, protectns, and marriage. But his assertn that Chartraire do not stand for the gay muny overlooks a trend that has been acceleratg over the last : French gay votersare fallg for the Front Natnal’s lear, Mare Le Pen.

FROM MARE LE PEN TO THERA MAY, WHY DO WHE GAY MEN NTUE TO SUPPORT RIGHT-WG NDIDAT?

The Borx gay scene has dwdled sce the attacks, but McCarthy says that he, like Ltra, is alarmed at the way that asslts by a few Arabs have created a major polemil opposn between gays and Mlims. That gay men now feel fortable wh the Front Natnal is the rult of a liberate effort by s lear, Mare Le Pen, who has pursued a programme of toxifitn (the French term is ‘-diabolisatn’) ever sce she took ntrol of the party 2011. Although Hollan phed through the legalisatn of gay marriage last year, many left-wg gay voters were disappoted that he failed to give the bill his personal support until the last mute.

“What’s happeng bars, pecially when people have a uple drks, when they are among iends, you n hear that they’re not aaid to voice opns that for a long time were reprsed wh the gay muny, ” said Didier Ltra, founr of Act Up France and thor of the book Why Gays Turned Right. The founr of a gay rights group si France’s major center-right party — now known as the Republin Party — Chenu ma headl when he joed the Natnal Front 2014 and now heads the party’s mtee for the entire north of France.

AHEAD OF HOMOPHOBIA TRIAL, JEAN-MARIE LE PEN OUT OF THE CLOSET ABOUT GAYS

Although there is a powerful social nservative wg of the party, he wasn’t worried, bee he was assured they were the people Laroze knew who were close to Florian Philippot, the party’s hight-rankg gay lear, told him: “Don’t worry, there are two factns and that [social nservative] one is mor, ” Laroze said.

” But the fact that he remaed one of the party’s most powerful members sent a signal that there was a certa tolerance for gay people wh the Natnal Front has always been somethg of a fay bs, and the social nservative factn’s brightt star is Mare Le Pen’s 27-year-old niece, Marn Maréchal-Le Pen. The group is lled La Manif Pour To, or “Prott for All, ” a play on the French term for marriage equaly, “le mariage pour to” — marriage for immediately beme an onle spegoat for those angry about gay lears the party. “Another mn, ” tweeted someone else, g a term wh a nnotatn like “fairy” that Philippot’s opponents have ed as an ephet agast a supposed “gay lobby” they ntend he has built around anonymo attacks might have been easy to shg off, Laroze said, but he was gettg more ser heat si the party behd the said the print of the Marianne Collective stunt anizatn showed him a text msage om Marn Maréchal-Le Pen rmg him that Laroze was now unwele her part of France.

Marianne Collective Print Daniel Augte told BuzzFeed News that Guillme Laroze was overreactg to the harassment and that he was not reprentative of gay Natnal Front supporters. “It is te that wh the Natnal Front, we do have posns on societal issu: We are opposed to same-sex marriage, we are opposed to adoptn for gay upl, we are opposed to medilly assisted procreatn, we are opposed to surrogate mothers. Some reported the study found nearly 40% of gays voted for the Natnal Front regnal electns, a rate higher than straight voters, a statistic repeated by Natnal Front that was not actually what the rearchers found.

NOT THE ONN: MOSW BANS GAY PRI FOR NEXT 100 YEARS

6%, but that bloc generally skews olr and more nservative than the LGBT populatn as a whole, acrdg to French public opn is remarkable that a party long known for s bigotry and that officially favors repeal of marriage equaly uld pick up this mographic, but a broar look at pollg data suggts gay, lbian, and bisexual voters still tend to support left-leang parti at a rate higher than straight voters.

)In ntrast, pollsters wh the firm Ipsos told BuzzFeed News they found 52% of the gays and lbians clud an ex poll durg regnal electns December 2015 said they voted for left-wg parti, as opposed to 36% of straight people; around one-quarter of both gay and straight rponnts reported votg for the Natnal Front that ’s not much good data on what queer voters thk about immigratn, but a small sample of LGB people — 302 people — a survey Ipsos nducted 2016 giv a ht. Hate crim reported to a hotle n by the group SOS Homophobia reached an all-time high of 3, 517 2013, the year the marriage equaly proposal was bated, and fell to 1, 318 2015, even as hundreds of thoands of immigrants have been granted new rince perms that perd.

Didier Ltra, the Act Up founr, published Why Gays Turned Right 2011, well before Le Pen’s new directn solidified or the first polls appeared showg gay support for the Natnal Front growg. Even Sébastien Chenu, who started an anizatn lled GayLib to promote LGBT issu si the party of former Print Nilas Sarkozy before jog the Natnal Front 2014, told BuzzFeed News that he is not a “gay activist” and do not “regnize a gay muny. ”“Here France … we do not regnize different muni, ” Chenu than 5% of French people ually intify as lbian, gay, or bisexual public opn surveys, acrdg to François Krs of the pollg firm IFOP.

COMMENT MARE LE PEN A FA LA UR X GAYS

Germany is due for electns late summer, and although the natnalist Alternativ for Germany party is also anti-LGBT — a regnal lawmaker ma headl June by suggtg gay people should be jailed — is experimentg wh appeals to LGBT voters, such as postg signs Berl wh the slogan "My partner and I don't have any e for gettg to know Mlim immigrants; to them our love is a mortal s. He ma a play for LGBT support by clarg after the mass shootg June at a gay nightclub Orlando, “I will fight for you while Hillary [Clton] brgs more people that will threaten your eedoms and beliefs, " but he performed worse than any Republin ndidate the last 24 years among LGBT voters the US printial electn, wng jt 14% of their vot, acrdg to ex the immigratn backlash has ma European polics so volatile that this strategy uld work better for natnalist lears, pecially those who seem ls beholn to their untri’ relig right than Tmp. On the eve of the electn, many gay people and French progrsiv are takg heart that Le Pen is trailg her rival, Emmanuel Macron, a centrist and a banker who is holdg an average lead of 60 percent to her 40 percent polls.

Over the past two years, European LGBTQ activists have spilled nsirable k, furly llg out the amb gay pols who've jumped on board the Natnal Front's ticket at the lol level. Supporters pot out that Le Pen cled to march the big anti-gay marriage street march this year, stark ntrast to her niece Marn Marechal-Le Pen, also a party risg star who admir Napoleon Bonaparte.

It's a very dangero, divisive, tacly racist msage, one that seeks to spl muni, and mt be fought wh equally clear msagg by all French progrsiv, many of whom intify as secular and alienated om fall, a survey om the French Instute of Public Opn of French voters found that 26 percent of homosexuals Paris supported the Natnal Front, pared wh 16 percent of heterosexuals.

GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI

In the midst of a divisive electn year, the televised addrs was a startlg moment of natnal uny centered around a man who was, seems, unabashedly queer: An LGBTQ activist his spare time, Jugelé was a member of Flag, an anizatn of French LGBTQ police officers, and had protted Rsia’s anti-gay propaganda law the lead up to the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Center-right printial ndidate François Fillon, who received 20 percent of the vote last Sunday’s first round of electns, ran on a platform to repeal gay adoptn rights and, acrdg to a proment gay rights group, has a visn of France that is “clearly hostile to LGBT people.

On Sunday her father, founr and former party lear Jean-Marie Le Pen, told viewers of his Youtube channel that the funeral service was an homage ma “more to the homosexual than the police officer” and that the speech “stutnalized gay marriage and exalted a public way, and that shocked me.

Such ments are no doubt part of her efforts to appeal to voters beyond the tradnal Natnal Front more hardre nservative base, and likely reprent yet another one of her attempts to urt gay voters.