The Dangers of Being an Outspoken LGBT Activist

Russia? Ukraine? Nope! France. (S)

Activism by nature, means expressing your point of view on a topic when you believe something needs to be done to protect a so-far unprotected group, whether it's the LGBT community or animals.

It's obvious that if you decide to do activism you have to expect to meet the people who are against you in your fight for equality, and these people will either stand around and have a heated debate with you in which neither side will step down, or they'll punch you in the face.

Unfortunately, the situation in France is worsening by the day. Most of the people left in the anti-equality camp are fascists.

If we go back to late 2012, most of the opponents to the French equality bill would stand there and have a debate with the people in my LGBT activism group when we counter-protested them. It was more civilized if you removed the homophobia, but still, it was the right way to go about spreading their message. At this point, the only physical violence France had seen towards LGBT activists was the FEMEN being beaten up in Paris in December by Civitas, a radical Christian group.

Let's jump forward now to January. The bill had been passed in the National Assembly and once again, my group reacted by occupying a balcony above their protest and spreading out a banner which read "Article 1 voted - Equality moving forward". We got egged. The woman on the microphone got hysteric because it wasn't the message the opposition movement wanted to spread. It was the first sign we had that the violence in the opposition's protests was escalating.

Christiane Taubira receives roses in Bordeaux

Now, one month later in mid-February, things are getting increasingly worrying. On Friday 15th January, Christiane Taubira (the Minister for Justice who proposed and fought for the equality bill) visited Bordeaux. We were there, we had permission from the police, and we carried out an act of support for her with placards reading "Thank you", a bouquet of roses, and a copy of the poem book she quoted in the National Assembly. She was genuinely moved by our act of support and even had a tear of joy in her eye. 100 meters away, the opposition was counter protesting. Our group stood in front of them with our placards, spoke to the press and then left by request of a police sergeant.

We all walked back to the LGBT center, where about five minutes after our arrival, three or four guys stepped inside the door and egged everyone and everything inside the building. The attack lasted no more than 15 seconds before they split into two groups and ran out the door. I was standing at the back of the front room and got an egg in the arm, but I was standing just in front of one elderly man, a man in a wheelchair, and a 5 year old girl. It could easily have been one of them. The president of the center got an egg to the head. The interior of the center was ruined, the police was called, the press was notified and so was Minister Taubira within 2 hours of the attack.

Sure, "they were just eggs" I hear you say, but three months ago, something like that would have been unimaginable. In fact, that was the first time the LGBT center had been attacked like that. If that, combined with the last time we were egged, is not proof enough of the climbing violence in the opposition camp, I don't know what is.

In January, three teenagers were attacked in a tram in our city just because they supported equal marriage. The attackers got the absolute minimum sentence, and the one with the most severe sentence was told he could be let out early for good behaviour.

What's more, Le Refuge, the name of the group of centers for homeless LGBT teens who have been kicked out of their homes because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, has seen an explosion in the numbers of teens they're fostering.

All of this proves the point we activists made back in December; their arguments are weak, unsupported by studies, and the only reason they're fighting against the bill is because they all have varying degrees of homophobia. The bill has been in the Senate for a day now and the debate will start on 2nd April. The opposition is desperate, defeated, and turning to violence to prove their anger. This is uneducated and barbaric. Difference of opinion exists in a democracy like France, they just have to get their neanderthal heads around that.

Here's the video of what I spoke about in this article.