French Citizens Protest against Possible Same Sex Marriage Bill

In France there was a massive protest against the President’s plan to legalize gay marriage in the country. While they already allow civil unions to occur between two men or two women, they do not allow marriage. Even though a civil union does come with most of the rights that come along with marriage, it does not come with all the same rights. When the president was trying to be elected into office, he made it clear that he was for gay marriage as well as adoption by gay couples. Now that it looks like he is going to try and pass a bill that will approve both, there are masses of people who oppose it. There were hundreds of thousands of people protesting the new bill on Sunday. They gathered throughout the streets of Paris and met up at the Eiffel Tower where they chanted and waved around a variety of different flags and banners about the subject.

The Bill

After Francois Hollande was elected into office he produced a draft bill that should be going through both the National Assembly as well as the Senate relatively soon. The bill should be voted on in either February or March and it will mark a huge step forward for the gay community. “The law must allow all couples to unite themselves as they wish and must protect all families, without discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity,” This is exactly what the LFBT or the French gay, lesbian and transgender rights group stated about the bill. They say that the law will be a major step forward for the government as far as equality is concerned. They also claim that it will help reduce the level of discrimination between citizens of the country because they will be able to live their lives in the same way.

The Argument Against

Most of the argument opposing the bill is based on religious beliefs. The protesters had messages about religion and when asked about why they were opposed to the law many stated that it was unnatural or simply that it was against the Christian Bible. The Cardinal Andre Ving-Trois stated that by opening the marriage up to same sex it would affect everyone and not just those couples. He also said that failing to recognize gender differences between marriage would lead to discrimination between children.

Odds of Being Approved

The odds of the law actually making it into existence don’t look very good. There are plenty of different religious groups in the country who are against it, and there is over 100 lawmakers who don’t want the bill passed. Most of the mayors around the country also are against the bill being put into place. With so much going against the bill it would be very difficult for it to actually make it into being even with the support from all of the gay and lesbian organizations and backers. The bill will not be voted on for a few months still, as it was just drafted a little while ago.