FRANCE/FILE: On the eve of the French parliament's final vote on a same-sex marriage bill that has divided the nation, pro- and anti-camps rally for the final push

Record ID: 277843

  • Title: FRANCE/FILE: On the eve of the French parliament's final vote on a same-sex marriage bill that has divided the nation, pro- and anti-camps rally for the final push
  • Date: 22nd April 2013
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (FILE - APRIL 10, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ASSAULT VICTIM WILFRED DE BRUIJN'S FACEBOOK PAGE AND THE PHOTO HE UPLOADED OF HIS FACE AFTER ATTACK WHICH HE DESCRIBED AS HOMOPHOBIC
  • Embargoed: 7th May 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAOWD208BXJUUHANW4O4TBWLGB
  • Story Text: It was the rosy campaign pledge which helped sweep France's Socialists to power in 2012, but President Francois Hollande's promise to legalise same-sex marriage has divided the nation and driven thousands onto the streets in recent months.
    Now it's nearly over as the French lower house prepares to give the final seal of approval to the bill on Tuesday (April 23).
    Though polls have consistently shown a steady majority of the population in favour of the reform, the anti-gay marriage lobby has led a high-profile campaign bolstered by extensive media coverage.
    Some 350,000 joined in a march to the Eiffel Tower on January 13 and regular demos have taken place all over the country backed by the Catholic Church and other religious groups, as well as the country's political conservatives.
    But in recent weeks LGBT associations have said they fear that the tone of the debate has degenerated, accusing some opponents of outright homophobia.
    Campaign group SOS Homophobie have said that the debate has been accompanied by a rise in the number of homophobic assaults and earlier in April an attack on a young Dutchman in Paris, Wilfred de Bruijn, caused an internet sensation when he uploaded a photo of his battered face onto Facebook.
    Gay marriage campaigner and French politician Jean-Luc Romero told Reuters on Sunday that he believes the debate has become tinged with homophobia, and that people forget its human cost.

    "I think that today people think that thanks to social media they can say all sort of things and that it's all anonymous. But in fact in the end they forget that there are men and women on the receiving end of it," he said.
    A widely-publicised attack on a gay bar in Lille on April 17 and a series of agitated demonstrations outside parliament this month saw hard-right youths pelt police with stones and bottles and damage cars. Hollande felt compelled to weigh in to the debate calling for calm.
    But organisers of the "Protest for Everyone" movement which opposes the reform insist that a limited number of extremists are responsible for the violence, keen to distance themselves from the excesses of the campaign.

    "There have been no cars burned, no windows smashed, no policemen injured, and in our demos gay people are in the front row, the first position, and there have been amazing encounters between people who may not otherwise have spoken to each other," Tugdual Derville, director of the anti-gay marriage Alliance Vita, told Reuters on Monday.
    Derville strongly rejected the accusations of homophobia cast against his colleagues and said he himself had been the victim of death threats on social media.
    With the reform almost certain to pass in Tuesday's vote, his movement's campaign is rapidly running out of road and legal experts say the first same-sex marriages could take place in France in the early summer.
    But Derville and his partners insist that they will fight on with further demos planned for the coming months.
    LBGTQI
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