Anti-gay marriage protters return to streets of Paris

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. 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.

GAY MARRIAGE APPROVAL DON’T QUELL PROTTS FRANCE

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.

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

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. 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.

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

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.

GAY MARRIAGE IS PROTTED FRANCE

Anti-same sex marriage activists prott a few hours after the French Parliament adopted a gay marriage law on April 23 Paris.

FRENCH GAY MARRIAGE PROTTS DRAW THOANDS OF DEMONSTRATORS

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.

FIRST GAY MARRIAGE CELEBRATED FRANCE

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.

FRENCH PROTTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE BILL

BBC has a map showg which untri allow gay marriage. GlobalPost looks at the Twter backlash agast the French gay marriage law.

GAY MARRIAGE PROTT DRAWS THOANDS TO PARIS

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. “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.

PROTTERS PARIS MARCH AGAST GAY MARRIAGE

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.

ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE PROTTERS RETURN TO STREETS OF PARIS

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. 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.

ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE PROTTERS CLASH WH FEMISTS PARIS

”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. “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.