Ahead of homophobia trial, Jean-Marie Le Pen out of the closet about gays

Contents:

• HOW MARE LE PEN IS WNG FRANCE’S GAY VOTE
• DON’T BE FOOLED BY MARE LE PEN’S GAY PANRG—HER PARTY IS AWFUL FOR LGBTQ EQUALY
• THIS IS HOW FRANCE’S NATNALIST PARTY IS WNG GAY SUPPORT
• PRéSINTIELLEEN SOURDE SUR L QUTNS LGBT, MARE LE PEN RTE UN SOUTIEN DU LOBBY ANTI-GAY
• LE PEN'S FATHER 'SHOCKED' BY FUNERAL TRIBUTE FOR SLA GAY POLICEMAN
• COMMENT MARE LE PEN A FA LA UR X GAYS
• IS MARE LE PEN GAY? FRENCH PRINT CANDIDATE’S PERSONAL LIFE DETAILS
• POURQUOI MARE LE PEN DéFEND L FEMM, L GAYS, L JUIFS…
• AHEAD OF HOMOPHOBIA TRIAL, JEAN-MARIE LE PEN OUT OF THE CLOSET ABOUT GAYS

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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. 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.

PRéSINTIELLEEN SOURDE SUR L QUTNS LGBT, MARE LE PEN RTE UN SOUTIEN DU LOBBY ANTI-GAY

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.

LE PEN'S FATHER 'SHOCKED' BY FUNERAL TRIBUTE FOR SLA GAY POLICEMAN

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.

COMMENT MARE LE PEN A FA LA UR X GAYS

Enter Le Pen, who is tryg to tread a narrow le between her current public ments about protectg the gay muny and her party’s long history of anti-gay rhetoric and polici. 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.

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. That's ma easier for Le Pen to ve gays to her party the well-groomed, publicly polished, nservative gays vyg to be lol mayors all racist, fascist, self-hatg closet s?

IS MARE LE PEN GAY? FRENCH PRINT CANDIDATE’S PERSONAL LIFE DETAILS

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. 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.

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.

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.

POURQUOI MARE LE PEN DéFEND L FEMM, L GAYS, L JUIFS…

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.

Over the last few years, she has refully placed gay men (and only men) to the ranks of the Natnal Front, like vice print Florian Philippot: Acrdg to Buzzfeed, “the Natnal Front now has more high-rankg gay figur than any major party France. But wh ls than a week before the cisive send round of the electn, is worth rememberg that Le Pen is anythg but LGBTQ-iendly: Her mpaign platform lls for the repeal of gay marriage and would rtrict fertily servic for gay and lbian upl wantg to have children.

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

And no matter how much Mare Le Pen tri to pkwash the party and distance herself om s extremist past, even gog so far as to rece herself om s learship last week, the sta of her homophobic father remas lible. “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.

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.