Despite campaigning on a promise to legalize same-sex marriage, French President Francois Hollande is facing increased resistance to the idea now that he’s in office.
The government is expected to share it’s draft of a “marriage-for-all” law this Wednesday, and then send it to the National Assembly for debate in January with the hope of passing it by June 2013.
Nationally, the French still support the idea of marriage equality but by a smaller margin—and less so in conservative rural areas. Support from within Hollande’s own party is declining, and vocal opposition from religious leaders, small-town politicians and cultural conservatives is on the uptick.
Francois Lebel, a district mayor of Paris, stated that legalizing gay marriage would lead to polygamy, incest and pedophilia. (Guess NOM has been translating its handbook into français.)
The Socialists main opposition party, the UMP, is also against opening marriage to same-sex couples—one politician with an eye to the presidency, Francois Fillon, said he’d reverse the law if elected. (France has had civil unions for hetero and homosexual couples since 1999.)
The question of marriage equality has also raised the issue of gay parenting: Once, the French supported gay adoption by more than 50%—now that number has slipped to less than half. Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has campaigned against legislation to allow gay couples access to in vitro fertilization. And last week, a group calling itself Alliance Vita held demonstrations in cities throughout France, with participants engaging in flash-mob-style performances to attack children raised in gay households.
Actually, one look at Alliance Vita’s little hate-in could make a person reconsider an anti-equality stance. Check it out below.
Sukhrajah
Can we parallel this, though, to the fight in California for marriage equality; At first, we thought that we would be able to pass it (given the state’s nature and liberal past), but that awoke the conservatives, causing them to flood in. There’s been a fight, and it’s hardened members on both extremes of the argument, but now our task is to educate and convince the undecided. I know that it might look bleak at times, but each day, we get more and more people not only educated about the facts (and the realities) of gay marriage, but we get more and more supporters, and unlike in the past, they are smarter, wiser and more willing to stand for the cause. I think that the same will happen in France, and that the French people will see marriage equality sooner than later, but to think that it was going to be battle-less was foolish.
alexoloughlin
France is a very conservative country, surprising to some who think it’s very liberal on social issues, in spite of a socialist government. This doesn’t surprise me though. There has been a backlash from the roman cult in almost every country where equal marriage is legal. Holland should stick to his guns and get it passed. Even if his government is ousted and replaced by the UMP, it would have a hard time overturning it.
Denmark, the first country to introduce legal unions for gay couples in 1989 saw it’s first attempt to legalize equal marriage defeated, but it passed on a second attempt this past March. I’ve no doubt if it fails in France, probably won’t, it will succeed at a later date.
Ogre Magi
Christians ruin every f-cking thing!
ChiChi Man
@Ogre Magi: What he said.