PARIS: demonstration against new Marriage Act allowing gays and lesbians to get married

         This Sunday, January the 13, 2013, there was a demonstration against gay marriage. The streets of Paris was filled since the early hours, with people of all ages and genders holding up signs with slogans expressing their views on this new law that the French president, François Hollande, is going through with. The demonstration consisted of French citizens, travelling all the way to Paris to attend the demonstration and bring attention to their opposing views.  The demonstration was divided into three different groups and each of them were given their own specific starting point. The first group started at Denfert-Rochereau with participants living in the 6^th, 7^th and 15^th “arrondissements” as well as the people from the south and south-west. The second group started at Place d’Italie with participants from the 1st – 5^th, 9^th – 14^th, 19^th and 20^th “arrondissements” and from the towns in the east, north-east and south-east. The final group started at Porte Maillot with participants from the 8^th and 16^th – 18^th “arrondissements” and the west and north-west of France. The 3 groups marched and demonstrated in the streets of Paris before they all gathered at Champ-de-mars, where there was entertainment and such while they waited for the letter written to François Hollande from the head participants, to be read out loud on stage.

The majority of the participants in this demonstration were Catholics and right-wing people fending for what they meant was a waste of time. They were slightly annoyed that Hollande was focusing on such a subject when there are other more important issues to be taken care of such as unemployment and social deterioration linked to the ongoing economic crisis in Europe.

This demonstration caused huge discussions amongst the politicians and journalists, and the news stations were everywhere trying to get an interview from both sides. In one interview there was a male participant of the demonstration who got kissed by another male on live TV. This shows that there were also people demonstrating against the demonstration. There was even one group demonstrating against marriage itself.

This demonstration was being compared to the one of free schools in 1984 as it is the same group of people now as then. That time they managed to get what they wanted but this time the odds are not in their favor. In 1984 they demonstrated for the children and the right to choose which schools they wished to attend. In 2013 they are also using the children as arguments to support their resistance to this new law. They find it unfair for the children to be adopted in to a gay marriage as the correct family consists of a man, a woman and a child. The extreme rights were comparing Hollande to Hitler, saying he is acting like a dictator and not listening to the people, as well as not preserving the French pride.

Even with their great efforts to stop this law from coming through, it is already clear that they will not succeed. The demonstration only had about 340 000 participants (police’s figures), even though they were hoping for a number above the million like the one in 1984. The reality of it is, even if they did have that many people, it still wouldn´t work as there are about 60 million people in France and so the demonstration is a clear minority. The politicians have moved on from the question of gay marriage as the decision is already made and are now discussing the question of adoption. What is and what isn’t fear for the child and what is and what isn’t acceptable. The question of adoption does not yet have to be answered as Hollande is yet to say anything specific about this matter.

Finally as a result of today’s vast demonstration a lot of the Parisian public transport systems were disrupted throughout the day. Metro stations such as Place d’Italie, Porte Dauphine and Le Gobelins were closed from 11 am until 5pm and more than 25 bus lines were delayed by traffic.