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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Gay Marriage in France Likely

Gay Marriage in France Likely

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Meanwhile, overseas:

French lawmakers voted to legalize same-sex marriage Tuesday, despite vocal protests from some conservatives opposed to the step.

The nation’s lower house approved a marriage bill, which will also give same-sex couples the right to adopt, in a 331-to-225 final vote.

They cast their votes after impassioned speeches by lawmakers for and against the legislation.

President Francois Hollande, who pledged his support for same-sex marriage on the campaign trail last year, will have to sign the bill before it becomes law.

This is kind of a shame, because the anti-gay marriage folks in France really put on some of the most hilariously gay protests ever. Like shirtless men in masks and gags:

Or the always popular interpretative bird dance featuring a man in silver bodysuit so snug you can tell if he has been circumcised:

Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted, I suppose.

Reader Interactions

94Comments

  1. 1.

    Yutsano

    I lurve how CNN makes it sound so dramatic and suspenseful. Same-sex marriage was one of Hollande’s signature issues you wankers.

  3. 3.

    The Other Chuck

    Captain Obvious says: those are some of the gayest anti-gay protests I’ve ever seen.

  4. 4.

    scav

    I think L’Académie française wants to have a word with those guys on top. L’Anglais?! horreur!

  6. 6.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Awesome, now gaymarrying is gonna have the stink of France all over it. Thanks France!

  7. 7.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    I am surprised the vitriol in France against same sex marriage, because of their reputation for sexual liberation, or was that they were trying to sell to lecture “prudish, sexually suppressed Americans”?

  9. 9.

    jayjaybear

    Not to mention that the leader of the French anti-gay groups chose a pseudonym that sounds like the most awesome drag name in history.

    Frigide Barjot. No, really! Frigide Barjot! And these are the ANTI-gay people!

  10. 10.

    Shortstop

    OT, I just came from the Senate gallery, where I was appalled to personally watch McCain and Huckleberry arguing for holding Tsarnaev as an enemy combatant. I tell you I showed the restraint of my life.

  11. 11.

    ? Martin

    So, the inventors of democracy, existentialism, and the ménage à trois are opposed to gay marriage? Unpossible.

  12. 12.

    gene108

    We can’t our Catholics be as accommodating as the the French Catholics?

    Especially since France has been mostly Catholic for a couple of thousand years.

  13. 13.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @The Other Chuck: They adopted the color pink for their cause and their most noticeable spokesperson is France’s own Ann Coulter, “Frigide Barjot” (frigid nutcase, a phonetic play on Brigitte Bardot), a comedian affiliated with the Front National. The same-sex marriage cause could hardly have better frenemies.

  14. 14.

    James Probis

    @gene108: You mean like the French Catholics who have been rioting and physically assaulting gay people, mailing explosives to politicians? Those Catholics?

  15. 15.

    Roger Moore

    @scav:

    I think L’Académie française wants to have a word with those guys on top. L’Anglais?

    Maybe they’re perfectly happy to have that stuff written in any language but French.

  16. 16.

    Matt McIrvin

    @? Martin: Same-sex marriage is more popular in France than in the US (taken as a whole), but, for some reason, the French opposition is actually more violent and lunatic. What this means, I have no idea.

  18. 18.

    scav

    @gene108: they’ve been anti-clerical for nearly as long — do love an internal opposition.

    I’ve forgotten what a comedie l’Académie is: they’re taking on “hashtag” (mot-dièse), “corner” in football (coup de pied de coin) and ‘serial analysis of gene expression’ and ‘suppression subtractive hybridisation’ (you’re on your own there).

  21. 21.

    beltane

    @Mr Stagger Lee: The French reputation for sexual liberation is mostly based on their tolerance towards the behavior of heterosexual males, e.g. Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

  22. 22.

    LanceThruster

    NEWSFLASH! Cheese-eating surrender-monkeys surrender the cheese!

    The threat to opposite marriage worldwide cannot be misunderestimated!

  24. 24.

    Ash Can

    @gene108: IIRC, although there are loads of Catholic churches in France, they’re not well attended. The French take a fairly dim view of religion in general.

  25. 25.

    Chris

    @Mr Stagger Lee:

    I am surprised the vitriol in France against same sex marriage, because of their reputation for sexual liberation, or was that they were trying to sell to lecture “prudish, sexually suppressed Americans”?

    You can be “sexually liberated” in the sense that you don’t preach Victorian era prudishness when it comes to relations with women, and still be a homophobe.

  26. 26.

    Roger Moore

    @? Martin:

    So, the inventors of democracy, existentialism, and the ménage à trois are opposed to gay marriage?

    In which universe did the French invent democracy? Hint: we had a functioning government under our current Constitution when Louis XVI called the Estates General.

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    @Matt McIrvin:
    I think that the underlying meaning is that violence and lunacy among the conservative minority increase as it becomes ever more apparent that they’re going to lose. IOW, don’t be surprised when things get worse here instead of better.

  32. 32.

    LanceThruster

    Didn’t the downfall of the whole of civilization begin with these people and their “Enlightenment?”

  34. 34.

    Roger Moore

    @scav:

    ‘serial analysis of gene expression’ and ‘suppression subtractive hybridisation’ (you’re on your own there).

    They’re fighting an uphill battle on that one. Even Institute Pasteur publishes its journals in English these days.

  35. 35.

    NotMax

    French news source report:

    Recent opinion polls show that a majority –between 53% and 58%– of people in France support gay marriage.

    According to Yves-Marie Cann, of the French polling firm CSA, those figures have remained constant throughout months of controversy. However, he noted that the number of people against adoption by same-sex couples has risen in recent months, with 56% now opposed to the measure.
    [snip]
    Opponents pledged to keep fighting the marriage reform despite its passing. Just hours before the vote, opposition MP Henri Guaino told France Inter radio that he would continue joining protests until Hollande called a referendum on the issue.

    Guaino nevertheless admitted that it would be very difficult to reverse the law once it went into effect and after same-sex couples began to wed.

    Other lawmakers said they would immediately request that the law be scrutinised by France’s Constitutional Council, while others said they would repeal it as soon as conservatives regained a majority in parliament.…

  36. 36.

    Joey Maloney

    @Roger Moore: just like the French have no word for “entrepreneur”, did you know the Greeks have no word for “democracy”? True fact.

  39. 39.

    gene108

    @James Probis:

    Didn’t know.

    Usually I hear about how much more liberal Europe is with regards to sex and figured the Catholic church in places like Italy and France had to keep quiet and go along with the rest of society.

  40. 40.

    scav

    @Roger Moore: Given that their hashtag substitute can’t be hashtagged and coup-de-pied-du-coin takes nearly a football match to say I’d say they’re in a hole with uphill all around. Le hot dog and le weekend, have they perished from the ears of mankind in the hexagon?

  42. 42.

    Suffern ACE

    @Roger Moore: And about thirty years after their revolution, they went back to going around the world using the need to put priests amongst the uncivilized as an excuse to annex swaths of Africa and Southeast Asia. Its not like they didn’t like to use priests as an excuse to run around Vietnam.

  44. 44.

    Chris

    @Ash Can:

    Yeah, officially, over eighty percent of French are Roman Catholic (myself included). Unofficially, a very definite majority doesn’t actually give a shit about all that (myself included again). French Republicanism was directed very overtly against religion and specifically the Catholic Church’s hold on society, and it shows.

  45. 45.

    Face

    while others said they would repeal it as soon as conservatives regained a majority in parliament.…

    I’d pay money to see the legal (and ethical) mess that’d incur if they just willy-nilly reversed this. Nullify all existing marriages? What about those with wedding plans? Wedding planners would go crazy losing all that biz, throwing cheese and armpit hair and flying all sorts of white flags.

  46. 46.

    NotMax

    Oh, and the French newspaper Libération today ran a multi-page spread of renowned (and gay) photographers Pierre et Gilles’ works, including frontal male nudes.

  49. 49.

    Aaron Baker

    Could you just tell me whether he’s been circumcised, so I don’t have to look?

  50. 50.

    Gex

    They also brought tear gas, destroyed public property, paid for that damage in so many tiny checks it would cost the government more to process the money than they would receive in payments, and have been threatening violence.

    They’re the same evil jackasses there as they are here. That they are hilariously gay can no doubt be attributed to the fucked up closet cases who are the heart of the movement.

  51. 51.

    Gex

    @Mr Stagger Lee: American evangelicals have been dumping money into anti gay movements world wide. The Catholics have been pushing just as hard internationally as they have here.

  52. 52.

    Raven

    @Suffern ACE: You know I didn’t quite get Pat Lang’s hatred for “the left” until the pope deal. The Mackarel snappers lurved them some South Vietnamese don’t ya know?

  54. 54.

    Chris

    @Suffern ACE:

    And about thirty years after their revolution, they went back to going around the world using the need to put priests amongst the uncivilized as an excuse to annex swaths of Africa and Southeast Asia. Its not like they didn’t like to use priests as an excuse to run around Vietnam.

    Yes, there’s a fascinating dichotomy there; the Republic might not have wanted the clergy or the rest of the conservative nutjobs taking power in Paris, but was happy to use them to rule the uncivilized masses in the colonies. Secularism > Catholicism but Catholicism > Weird Nonwhite People Religion, I guess. I see it as a convenient safety valve to get a lot of troublesome Catholics out of the country and into a situation where they could be useful to the Republic instead of causing trouble for it back at home.

    (Sort of the 1.0 version of Saudi Arabia exporting its fanatics to Afghanistan in the eighties).

  55. 55.

    sonofsamantha

    What is really sad is to watch Firebaggers/Kostards waste so much of what little political capital they have on gay issues.

    Gay’s are a small special interest group that does not have much influence in elections. If anything it’s hurting Dems chances of getting back the house so they can take on much bigger issues that affect everyone. Climate change, Wall Street etc. etc.

    But hey…gays can get married so it’s worth it to them I guess even though our kids won’t have clean air to breath.

  56. 56.

    Roger Moore

    @ranchandsyrup:

    Heh. From divorce destination to SSM destination in less than a century.

    In fairness, they’ve long been a location for quickie straight marriages as well as quickie divorces. I know at least one person who was married in Vegas to avoid the waiting period in California. It was rather ironic in her case, since she had been engaged for the better part of a decade, only to have her in-laws-to-be put off the wedding because of the desire to get an auspicious date by Chinese Astrology, mandatory mourning because of deaths in the family, etc. When it was finally time to get married, she realized that California has a mandatory waiting period for marriages, so she had to run off to Nevada to get legally married in time for the ceremony.

  58. 58.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @Chris:

    Republic might not have wanted the clergy or the rest of the conservative nutjobs taking power in Paris, but was happy to use them to rule the uncivilized masses in the colonies

    Il faut cultiver votre jardin.

    It all depends on just exactly whose plot is being weeded, doesn’t it?

  61. 61.

    PurpleGirl

    The guy in the silver bodysuit really looks like a Ken-doll in a body suit. Sort of all smooth down there, just like a Ken doll.

  64. 64.

    Comrade Mary

    If you read French, PLEASE click through and try some of the French comments.

    If you don’t read French, here’s a literal and wonderful translation from Google. Paging cleek! Cleek to the white courtesy phone, please. Or hell, just harvest the English for tags.

    T’es une tarte ou quoi? J’suis certain que tu t’es jamais fait sucé parceque-la-bouche-n’est-pas-f­aite-pour-être-pénétrée. Sérieux, poste des commentaires intelligents, mais pas des stupidités comme celles-là.

    You’re a pie or something? I’m sure you’ve never done it ’cause you suck-mouth-is-not-made​​-for-being-penetrated. Serious, intelligent post comments, but not stupid like that.

  65. 65.

    Calouste

    As far as I understand, but Chris might correct me, most of this shit is driven by Le Front National, who must have been gotten bored of hating on immigrants and decided to hate on someone else for a change. A few checks from America probably helped with that.

    Well, I guess not every proto-fascist can be like Joerg Haider.

  67. 67.

    Chyron HR

    I for one am shocked, SHOCKED, to discover that @Ben Franklin is misrepresenting facts:

    “The case has not been dismissed despite Curtis’s release from federal custody.”

  68. 68.

    Shortstop

    @JPL: Miss Lindsey was worse. Screeched in terror about how they’re all coming to kill us and why wouldn’t we use every means possible to save American lives? McCain watched admiringly, making promises with his eyes that he’ll never keep, leading to more tears on tonight’s pillow in Lindsey’s lonely boudoir. Kelly Ayotte got up to get the boys’ backs and Lindsey listened politely. McCain walked out as soon as the girl person started speaking.

  69. 69.

    The Other Chuck

    @Comrade Mary:

    You’re a pie or something? I’m sure you’ve never done it ’cause you suck-mouth-is-not-made​​-for-being-penetrated. Serious, intelligent post comments, but not stupid like that.

    I totally want that in the pie filter. Verbatim.

  70. 70.

    Chris

    @Calouste:

    The FN’s been the biggest supporter of far right causes for a generation, but from what I understand the UMP (center right) is doing more than its part as well. They’ve definitely helped organize a ton of the protests, and their official stance is also against gay marriage. Things got so heated last week that people supposedly came to blows in the legislative chamber.

  72. 72.

    Ben Franklin

    @Chyron HR:

    “The case has not been dismissed despite Curtis’s release from federal custody.”

    A clear case of CYA, as the Authoritay rarely clears anyone in an investigation.

  73. 73.

    Chris

    @Calouste:

    … not actually sure about the checks from America. There’s a love/hate relationship there. Even though European fascists and the American right wing share a lot of the same prejudices, it’s my understanding that not just the French but MOST far right parties in Europe have America somewhere on their shit list, even when it’s not at the top of it.

    Resentment for Americanization/globalization polluting the Pure National Heritage, resentment for America replacing the European empires as the world’s superpower, resentment for Americans who have the bad taste to not be French/Austrian/whatever…

  74. 74.

    scav

    @The Other Chuck: What I love about the tranlation is I can only account for the suck ending up where it did (and the it appearing from nowhere) is a certain automatic squeemishness at da Google.

  75. 75.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Roger Moore: I don’t know: I thought that the anti forces in Massachusetts were going to go violently nuts to a much greater degree than they did. At some point they just sort of gave up quietly. And that was even though we legalized same-sex marriage long before there was actually majority support.

    I think the cultural factors are more complex, and I don’t claim to understand them. France is a country that is both very secular and historically Catholic, but that describes Massachusetts pretty well too.

  76. 76.

    Redshift

    @sonofsamantha:

    Gay’s are a small special interest group that does not have much influence in elections. If anything it’s hurting Dems chances of getting back the house so they can take on much bigger issues that affect everyone. Climate change, Wall Street etc. etc.

    Fuck you, asshole. Exactly what got done on climate change while they were taking politically safe positions on gay rights?

    And once you’ve decided that selling out parts of your coalition in the misguided belief that it will help you get elected is such a great strategy, which issue do you think would be more benefit to sell out on, gay rights or climate change?

    Political capital isn’t infinite, but success does breed more of it. Cravenness has no inherent limits, and encouraging it in one area makes it more likely in others, not less.

  78. 78.

    Xenos

    Homosexuality was decriminalized in the French Revolution, and for decades before the revolution there was little enforcement of the sodomy laws. Under the fascist Vichy government the laws were changed to increase the age of consent for gay sex to 18. Those guys were bastards, but I don’t think they were trying very hard on this issue.

  84. 84.

    Herbal Infusion Bagger

    Iceland was playing about with an Althingi about 930.

    Then asked the Norwegians to do a takeover the 1400s because the country had devolved into a low level civil war between the 3-4 richest families. Turned out that not having an executive branch of gubmint wasn’t that good of an idea.

    Icelandic sagas are cool though. Murder-lawsuit-genealogy-murder-lawsuit-genealogy for hundreds of pages. Kinda like the Bible, but with more murder and less begats.

  85. 85.

    Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Same-sex marriage is more popular in France than in the US (taken as a whole), but, for some reason, the French opposition is actually more violent and lunatic. What this means, I have no idea.

    I think America’s conservative protesters have figured out, Why riot when you can line up for fried chicken?

  86. 86.

    Matt McIrvin

    @sonofsamantha:

    Gay’s are a small special interest group that does not have much influence in elections. If anything it’s hurting Dems chances of getting back the house so they can take on much bigger issues that affect everyone. Climate change, Wall Street etc. etc.

    Not buying it. Openly gay/lesbian/bi people are something like 3.5% of the population, sure. It’s much higher in gay-friendly urban areas, of course.

    Now add in all their friends, family members, sympathetic people, people who just don’t want to be bigots? In the US you’re already up above 50% across the country.

    And the generational effects are huge: young people are really, really turned off by anti-gay attitudes. They probably feel more strongly about this than they do about economic liberalism or the environment, and you can argue that that’s a pity, but it’s where we are.

  88. 88.

    dance around in your bones

    The guy in the silver jump suit looks totally drunk.

    Either that, or I am not up on interpretive dance lately.

  89. 89.

    PanurgeATL

    The impression I get from these is that the right wing is working from the idea that Creative Protesting will make their positions seem hip and cool. Anyone who’d do something like this couldn’t be that square, right?

    Meanwhile the fact that gays have been campaigning to Get Married And Join The Army seems designed to impart an impression of gays as being Really Just As Square As Anyone Else. I never asked for a world like that, but I’d like to know how to fix it, because there just seems like something out of whack to both tendencies. But that’s just me, I guess.

  90. 90.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @PanurgeATL: Shouldn’t people be able to be as glittery fabulous or square as they choose to be without it being dictated by sexual orientation?

  91. 91.

    Aimai

    Are these the lost out takes from woody Allen’s sleeper? Because I’m sure I recognized him in that silver suit.

  93. 93.

    Vanya

    This is a far more divisive issue in France than in the US. The fact that French are generally less homophobic than Americans is probably why gay marriage is less accepted,in France you can’t guilt people into supporting a massive change in national traditions by accusing them of being homophobes. Also the French are less romantic about marriage than Americans – it’s not about eternal love – marriage is about raising children and creating families, and is viewed as a paternalistic institution anyway. If a man or woman wants some gay sex on the side, fine, a lot of French people don’t understand why they want to get married.

    On top of that many progressives in Europe don’t get married anyway even if they are straight and have children, and regularly denounce the institution of marriage as an atavistic patriarchal institution. Therefore the right-wing sees gay marriage, probably correctly, not as a move for greater tolerance but simply an attack on the cultural mores of the less affluent and less cosmopolitan. Hollande’s government may well fall over this. The good news is that the right-wing and muslim immigrants now have an issue they can agree on.

  94. 94.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Vanya: Except that according to every actual poll I’ve seen, same-sex marriage has majority support in France, more support than in the US. It just seems to be more polarizing as well.

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