Femen stages topless gay rights protest in Vatican (PHOTOS)
PARIS—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 kilometres 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. “We have nothing against different ways of living, but we think that a child must grow up with a mother and a father.”
Public opposition spearheaded by religious leaders has chipped away at the popularity of Hollande’s plan in recent months. About 52 per cent of French favour legalizing gay marriage, according to a survey released Sunday, down from as high as 65 per cent in August.
French civil unions, allowed since 1999, are at least as popular among heterosexuals as among gay and lesbian couples. But that law has no provisions for adoption or assisted reproduction, which are at the heart of the latest debate.
Hollande’s Socialist Party has sidestepped the debate on assisted reproduction, promising to examine it in March after party members split on including it in the latest proposal. That hasn’t assuaged the concerns of many in Sunday’s protest, however, who fear it’s only a matter of time.
If the French parliament approves the plan, France would become the 12th country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.
Harlem Desir, the leader of Hollande’s Socialist Party, said the protest would not affect the proposal’s progress. The Socialists control Parliament, and a vote is expected by the end of January.
“The right to protest is protected in our country, but the Socialists are determined to give the legal right to marry and adopt to all those who love each other,” he said.
Elsewhere, the Vatican underlined its opposition to gay adoption on Sunday as same-sex marriage supporters staged a topless protest in front of the pope in St. Peter’s Square.
The Vatican paper L’Osservatore Romano published a response to an Italian court’s rejection of an appeal by a father who feared his son would not have a balanced upbringing if he lived with his mother and her female partner.
The Court of Cassation ruled it was “mere prejudice” to assume that living with a homosexual couple could be detrimental for a child’s development.
While gay rights group Arcigay called it a “historic ruling” for Italy, where it is illegal for gay couples to adopt, Catholic leaders were quick to defend the traditional family unit.
The Vatican has become increasingly vocal against homosexual marriage in recent months. Pope Benedict strongly reaffirmed the Church’s opposition to it in December, saying heterosexual marriage had an indispensable role in society.
While the pope was giving his weekly address on Sunday, four women from the Ukrainian Femen group who were in the crowd, pulled off their T-shirts to reveal the slogan “In Gay we Trust” painted over their bodies.
Screaming “Homophobes shut up” as the pope started his Angelus blessing, they provoked angry reactions from pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square. One woman in the crowd started hitting the activists with an umbrella, calling them “diabolical”.
Italian police grabbed the protesters and pulled them away from the crowd.
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