An Anti-Gay-Marriage Tea Party, French Style? | The New Yorker

Contents:

• FRANCE'S GAY MARRIAGE FIGHT
• GAY MARRIAGE APPROVAL DON’T QUELL PROTTS FRANCE
• FRENCH ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE PROTTERS MARCH TO REVIVE ISSUE BEFORE POLLS
• AN ANTI-GAY-MARRIAGE TEA PARTY, FRENCH STYLE?
• GAY MARRIAGE IS PROTTED FRANCE
• FRENCH GAY MARRIAGE PROTTS DRAW THOANDS OF DEMONSTRATORS
• FIRST GAY MARRIAGE CELEBRATED FRANCE
• FRENCH PROTTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE BILL
• GAY MARRIAGE PROTT DRAWS THOANDS TO PARIS
• PROTTERS PARIS MARCH AGAST GAY MARRIAGE
• ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE PROTTERS RETURN TO STREETS OF PARIS
• ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE PROTTERS CLASH WH FEMISTS PARIS

FRANCE'S GAY MARRIAGE FIGHT

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 APPROVAL DON’T QUELL PROTTS FRANCE

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.

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 France, there n be no such separatn.

FRENCH ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE PROTTERS MARCH TO REVIVE ISSUE BEFORE POLLS

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.

AN ANTI-GAY-MARRIAGE TEA PARTY, FRENCH STYLE?

Anti-same sex marriage activists prott a few hours after the French Parliament adopted a gay marriage law on April 23 Paris. France beme the 14th natn to legalize same-sex marriage Tuday, after their Socialist-domated lower hoe of parliament approved a bill that would allow homosexual upl to marry and adopt children. The public face of “manif pour to” appears to reprent France’s divergent cultural and legal rpons to homosexualy.

Earlier April, gay bars the provc were attacked, while protters Paris crashed through barris on the Champs-Elysé. Pierre, a 43-year-old Parisian socialist, explaed that he’s not homophobic, he jt fears for the welfare of children raised same-sex upl. Hollan would never be able to talk about “gay brothers and sisters” the way Print Barack Obama did his 2013 State of the Unn addrs, he add.

BBC has a map showg which untri allow gay marriage.

GAY MARRIAGE IS PROTTED FRANCE

GlobalPost looks at the Twter backlash agast the French gay marriage law.

PARIS (Rters) - Thoands of opponents of gay marriage took to the streets of Paris on Sunday to fend their visn of fay valu, hopg to revive the issue polil bat ahead of next year’s printial 24, 000 people took part the monstratn, police said, far fewer than the several hundreds of thoands the group “Demo for All” mobilized 2012 and 2013 an unexpectedly strong show of opposn om nservativ, pecially Roman Socialist ernment legalized same-sex marriage, which lled “Marriage for All”, said 13 people were arrted after a scuffle at the prott, cludg six topls women om the activist group Femen.

FRENCH GAY MARRIAGE PROTTS DRAW THOANDS OF DEMONSTRATORS

“Even if the gay marriage law has been adopted, we will ntue the prott to show that is not good and we want to be repealed. Opn polls show that a majory France do not want the gay marriage law to be repealed.

Demonstrators also spoke out agast surrogate motherhood, which gay upl uld e to create a marriage proponents phed for surrogacy to also be allowed the 2013 law, but the ernment cid not to revoke the current ban after seeg the unexpected protts that “Demo for All” staged durg the heated bate over the Print Nilas Sarkozy, who is trailg rival Ala Juppe the race to head the nservative Republins party ticket 2017 electn, said on Sunday he would not repeal same-sex marriage if he were returned to the Elysee Palace. On Saturday 50 people were taed for blockg the Champs-Elyse.The same-sex marriage bill, which also legalis gay adoptn, was signed to law by Print Franis Hollan last week, after months of heated bate. On Tuday, a far-right historian shot himself ad Notre Dame thedral, leavg msag which he nounced gay marriage.Durg Sunday's protts, monstrators head lumns om a number of pots Paris to the Invalis plex.Image ptn, Clash broke out after the ma monstratn fishedSome marchers drove donkeys, one of which bore a plard which read: "I am an ass.

FIRST GAY MARRIAGE CELEBRATED FRANCE

Nobody was hurt.Opposn to gay marriage has bee nflated wh all sorts of other anti-ernment grievanc g om the right and the atmosphere the untry is particularly volatile, the BBC's Hugh Schofield says.France is now the nth untry Europe, and 14th globally, to legalise gay marriage.More on this story. The day after the monstratns, François Hollan’s Socialist ernment announced that would not be puttg forward new legislatn to make easier for gay upl to adopt children or have them wh the help of surrogate mothers. Hollan’s gay-rights retreat was a major victory for La Manif Pour To (The Prott for Everyone), the group that has anized a seri of massive protts sce November, 2012, when the ernment first troduced the gay-marriage law.

La Manif Pour To, which was created to prott gay marriage, not only öpted the term manif but stole the appealg language of the law self, which was lled “Le Mariage Pour To” (“Marriage for Everyone”). Social issu—fay, marriage, sexualy, homosexualy—have sudnly bee highly charged France, but they play out so differently that they illtrate what’s distctive about France—and the U. ”La Manif Pour To has not objected to France’s civil-unn law, known as PACS, passed 1999, which allows gay—and heterosexual—upl to ga legal regnn for their unns whout marryg.

FRENCH PROTTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE BILL

“It is perfectly rrect that gay upl should have legal protectn, ” Albéric Dumont, another of the movement’s founrs and a law stunt Paris, told me by phone.

Arguably, the lser stat of PACS unns has done more to weaken the stutn of marriage than any number of gay weddgs uld. The new gay-marriage law, which has allowed seven thoand gay upl (many of them middle-aged) to marry, would hardly seem to be France’s biggt Manif Pour To supporters talk ls about fendg tradnal marriage than about their opposn to the very ia of gay and lbian people havg children.

GAY MARRIAGE PROTT DRAWS THOANDS TO PARIS

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTGay Marriage Is Protted FranceCred... Etienne Lrent/European Prsphoto AgencyMay 26, 2013PARIS — Thoands of French marched on Sunday, France’s Mother’s Day, to prott the recent legalizatn of gay marriage. Separately, the French police said they were ntug to search for the man rponsible for stabbg a uniformed soldier the neck on Saturday eveng, an act that may have been spired by the murr of a Brish soldier last week retaliatn for Wtern ary terventn Mlim anti-gay-marriage march occurred as a recent poll shows many French are losg patience wh the protts agast the “marriage for all” law that passed May 18.

PROTTERS PARIS MARCH AGAST GAY MARRIAGE

There was a separate, smaller march by nservative general, the monstratns agast the law have clud a batn of relig lears and their followers, opposed to gay marriage on relig grounds, and more nservative French, many of them Roman Catholic, who believe that gay upl should have equal rights, but wh an stutn other than marriage. Many also object to the new abily of gay married upl to adopt children, argug that a child should be raised by a man and a the prelu to the prott, on Saturday night, 59 people were arrted after chag themselv to metal barris on the Champs-Élysé. ”Wh much advance publicy, the first gay marriage is supposed to take place Wednday Montpellier, sometim lled the San Francis of se of the wound soldier, Pfc.

A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 8 of the New York edn wh the headle: Marriage By Gays Is Protted In France. PARIS, Feb 2 (Rters) - Thoands of monstrators began gatherg Paris and Lyon on Sunday a renewed prott agast France's legalisatn of gay marriage, which has mobilised nservativ of all strip. Print Franis Hollan's ernment has dismissed speculatn that plans to crease accs to medilly assisted procreatn and surrogacy for gay upl - which is nohels one of the prott troductn of an "Equaly ABC" programme to French elementary schools has also spawned outrage among tradnalists, amid ter mours that small children are to be tght genr protts are anised by "Demonstratn for All", a right-wg umbrella group that emerged rponse to the gay marriage law, passed last year.

Christe Tbira, the black jtice mister behd the gay marriage law, was pared to a monkey by a Natnal Front polician and picted on the ver of right-wg Mute magaze wh a headle pun about a thori also recently banned a show by popular edian Didonne M'Bala M'Bala that clus a song about the Holot. (Reportg by Lrence Frost; edg by Andrew Roche)Before You GoGay Marriage Around The WorldPopular the CommunyYou May Like. 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.

ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE PROTTERS RETURN TO STREETS OF PARIS

"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. " 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. "It's likely that we'll have to harn penalti for homophobic speech and behavr by law. " 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.

ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE PROTTERS CLASH WH FEMISTS PARIS

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.