First gay marriage celebrated France

Contents:

• FIRST GAY MARRIAGE CELEBRATED FRANCE
• TEN YEARS OF GAY MARRIAGE FRANCE: SAME-SEX UPL REFLECT ON A OF CHANGE
• FRANCE'S GAY MARRIAGE FIGHT
• 08 MAR 2013 FRANCE EMBRAC GAY MARRIAGE

FIRST GAY MARRIAGE CELEBRATED FRANCE

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. " 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.

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

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. Related stori:Thoands flood Paris to prott same-sex marriageFrance legaliz gay marriage spe angry protts. Le mariage entre ux personn même sexe, ssi appelé mariage LGBT, mariage gay ou mariage pour to t soumis x lois et ndns chaque pays.

FRANCE'S GAY MARRIAGE FIGHT

D établissements se sont même spécialisés pour accueillir l upl gay du mon entier. May 17 is the Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. This Wednday also marks exactly 10 years sce gay marriage beme legal France.

08 MAR 2013 FRANCE EMBRAC GAY MARRIAGE

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. 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.