Gay marriage protest converges on Eiffel Tower

[Redfairen]

Source: Associated Press

Holding aloft ancient flags and young children, hundreds of thousands of people converged Sunday on the Eiffel Tower to protest the French president's plan to legalize gay marriage and thus allow same-sex couples to adopt and conceive children.

The opposition to President Francois Hollande's plan has underscored divisions among the secular-but-Catholic French, especially more traditional rural areas versus urban enclaves. But while polls show the majority of French still support legalizing gay marriage, that backing gets more lukewarm when children come into play.

The protest march started at three points across Paris, filling boulevards throughout the city as demonstrators walked six kilometers (3 miles) to the grounds of France's most recognizable monument. Paris police estimated the crowd at 340,000, making it one of the largest demonstrations in Paris since an education protest in 1984.

"This law is going to lead to a change of civilization that we don't want," said Philippe Javaloyes, a literature teacher who bused in with 300 people from Franche Comte in the far east. "We have nothing against different ways of living, but we think that a child must grow up with a mother and a father."

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/01/13/gay-marriage-protest-paris/1830529/

[DonCoquixote]

1. Mon Dieu!

France, you just tried some of the right wing medicine Sarkozy tried to force feed you, and you wisely puked it out. Do you really want to go ahead and let the conservatives divide you again?

You ancestors sent nun and priests to the Guillotine because they helped the Catholic church turn you into a little fiefdom of Rome...While I am not saying you have to wheel it out again, you should remember why you did.

[Ellipsis]

2. How Phallic.

[Skittles]

3. because, you know, a mother and father always means parental bliss

the bigots there are as delusional as our own homegrown bigots

[Ken Burch]

7. And because, of course, if you make same-sex marriage illegal

ALL of the gays will marry people of the opposite sex...and there won't ever be ANY problems in those marriages...right?

[Skittles]

11. RIGHT!

[David__77]

4. Clericalism should be totally snuffed out.

It's a rotten thing at the core of Europe's old politics.

[marshall]

5. How do they control the conception of children?

I had no idea a country like France would even consider monitoring such a thing.

[Ken Burch]

8. Inspector Javert is on the case! n/t.

[valerief]

6. When it's a conservative congregation, I always divide the quoted number by 10.

When it's a progressive congregation, I always multiply the number by 10.

That seems to work out to accurate numbers.

[Socal31]

9. Hate.

Something all religious fundies can come together on!

[SoapBox]

10. Ditto

...perfectly said.

[Skittles]

12. AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH!!!

[OmahaBlueDog]

13. It should be noted...

Support for gay marriage in France has slipped by about 10 percentage points to under 55 percent since opponents began speaking out, according to surveys, and fewer than half of those polled recently wanted gays to win adoption rights.

Under this pressure, legislators dropped a plan to also allow lesbians access to artificial insemination.

Organizers insist they are not against gays and lesbians but for the rights of children to have a father and mother.

Slogans on the posters and banners approved by the organizers included "marriagophile, not homophobe," "all born of a father and mother" and "paternity, maternity, equality."

Statistically, that would indicate that marriage equality still has the support of the majority of French citizens.

[samsingh]

14. kick

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. Something tells me these people aren't also calling for the banning of divorce

when there are children involved. That, of course, would have to be part of a wish that "a child must grow up with a mother and a father". And any unmarried woman who gives birth would have to be forced to live with the father until the child is an adult.

I never realised until these kind of protests started just how superior to single people some married couples think being married makes them, and how they think that only people just like them should be allowed to share what they think makes them superior.