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| "I'm lesbian, f*ck you" and "Hi homophobes!": Protests and counter-protests heated up in Paris last weekend |
Last weekend saw the largest demonstrations yet, with anti-gay protesters reportedly having brought together over 100,000 people in cities and towns around France to protest against the marriage equality bill.
In reaction to this, gay rights activists organized (in some cases illegal) counter-protests and were met with violence.
In Paris on Sunday November 18th, thousands of anti-equality protesters filled the streets, waving banners and chanting slogans against the marriage bill. They claimed to have gathered 200,000 people, but according to police the total number of anti-gay protesters was around 70,000. They're calling their movement "protest for all" as a play on words with the pro-gay slogan "marriage for all", and they claim their movement is not politically motivated and that they aren't to be labeled right-wing conservatives.
"We're targeting only one thing; this bill. We are marriageophiles, not homophobes. We love gays!" said Frigide Barjot, one of the organizers of the event.
Their slogan is "all born from a man and a woman", which is brilliant, because it suggests that marriage is for procreation. This makes their slogan easy to attack. If marriage were for procreation then following that logic, infertile couples and the elderly shouldn't be allowed to marry.
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| "All guardians of the civil code", "Mummy + Daddy: There's nothing better for a child", "No to the 'marriage for all' bill". 70,000 anti-equality protesters filled the streets of Paris Sunday © MAXPPP |
Counter protests sprung up in Paris with a couple of hundred gay rights demonstrators turning up to show their disapproval to the mass anti-equality protest. In the southern city of Toulouse, police used tear gas to break up the crowds of activists and about a hundred riot police formed a human barrier between the pro- and anti-equality demonstrators who had started to get violent. However, in Paris things were a little less pretty. No riot police were called, and most of the crowd protection in areas where violence broke out was only made up of security guards in fluorescent jackets.
What you can see in the video above is a group of FEMEN feminists taking part in the illegal pro-equality counter-protest who were protesting in their underwear with a nuns veil on their head. They were standing by the side of the anti-equality protest when some of the protesters broke away from the main demonstration and started to attack the pro-equality counter-protesters who were beaten, hit and slapped in "every place imaginable" according to one of the witnesses.
There have been demonstrations for and against marriage equality all around France every weekend since the end of October. On December 8th I'll be attending the counter-protest in the city where I live, Bordeaux. Organizers of the pro-gay event are expecting the anti-equality protest, this one is being organized by religious extremists, to assemble around 7,000 anti-gay protesters. Following Sunday's events and numbers, I can't help thinking that number is underestimated and that there will be many more of them in reality. So far the Facebook event for our (legal) counter-protest says over 900 marriage equality supporters will be there on the day. If you live in or around Bordeaux, you really should try and make it on the 8th and invite as many people as possible. If you know someone who lives in or near Bordeaux, don't hesitate to send them the event and encourage them to go. In order to gain credibility and enough visibility to end up on the news reports we're going to need as many participants as possible. We need to show them that in this case strength is not in numbers, but in love.
You can find all the details about the counter-protest on December 8th by going to http://fdrq.ws/ManifBordeaux.
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