As an outsider and an American observer, I just had to roll my eyes and scratch my head over the recent protest march against a proposed law enabling homosexual marriage last weekend. Throngs of French citizens clogged the routes of Paris as they marched towards the Eiffel Tower, interrupting several bus lines and metro stops.
The ever-present blaring music and chants started even before noon Sunday, so I eventually gave up a Sunday nap and decided to check out the protest that was scheduled that day. Anyhow, it was a perfect excuse for a good walk.
Even before I came upon place Denfort Rochereau, I started smelling the grilled sausages and the like waffling through the freezing air. Leave it up to the French! When they protest, they do it right, turning the protest into one giant blow out party,sort of picnic style on foot.
Well Lordy! Lordy! Surprise! Surprise! I don’t think I have ever seen such a mob of singing and chanting people, a lot with children in tow, whipping their bright pink flags all around with great glee! to little ditties like”une Mama et un Papa pour tous,!(a mother and father for all) amongst others.
One could easily surmise that marriage a la francais is as much coveted and loved as tarte aux pommes(apple tart)! Yet , the state of marriage has been on the decline here, with the lowest marriage rates ever recorded in the history of France.
As I wrote about several months ago, nobody here seems to care much about getting married these days, as civil unions , or Pacs have overtaken marriages, in popularity. So, why is it that close to a million people are so suddenly up in arms about preserving their dear marriage?
Is it because they want to save marriage, just for their heterosexual selves? Well in reality, those heterosexuals have been consistently shunning marriage in France. Babies here, are coming at a faster rate than ever before, without marriage. In 2012, over 56,6 % of babies were born in France outside of marriage.
And to boot, France holds the title of the most fertile of all European countries! For a nation that portends to be so vehemently for “Liberté,Egalité et Fraternité”, that does not apply for homosexuals , who want the same right to marry as others.
The Roman Catholic church, as usual is definitely behind a lot of this, as “saving marriage” has been cited often in Masses here. Once again, the church continues to disregard scientific research, as much as it did in Galileo’s day.
How much more scientific studies are needed to prove the biological origin of homosexuality? Additionally, love is love, and is absolutely the same between homosexuals as it is between heterosexuals.
There has been a lot of criticism of the church meddling in politics here, due to the very strict separation of church and state, but in many ways France remains very well entrenched in catholic tradition, if by name only.
Frankly I have seen so many of emotionally, physically and sexually abused patents coming from heterosexual families, that it has certainly convinced me that the “ideal” family is a farce. I would much rather see two healthier homosexuals couples marry and raise kids, than two sick heterosexuals.
In my practice alone, the vast majority of sexually abused patients were abused by heterosexuals, not the other way around. Yet, whether from religious tenets or not, those marching obvious think that only heterosexual couples should marry because only they are “healthy” enough to raise children.
It looked liked Catholic parishes all over France brought in bus loads, as I saw signs of them as far away as Dordogne, in the southwest part of the country. Though the turn out was huge, polls here do reveal that 60% of French do approve of homosexual marriages. So it will be interesting to see what will evolve.
Big protests like this one of 800,000 trashing the streets of Paris are costly enough for the city to clean up after them. Where I was observing, 4 litter cleaning vehicles and loads of sanitation workers where just waiting to gobble up remnants of their march just on Place Denfort Rochereau.
The big surprise was when the organisers received a 100, 000 Euro bill from the city of Paris for having destroyed the lawn in winter repose behind the Eiffel Tower, called Champs de Mars. According to city hall, this is done to all organizations who use this huge public stretch of ground, irregardless of the event.
Now the manifestation organisers are up in arms over this “slap” in the face , claiming they do not have the means to pay such a sum. Humm.. I wonder about this, as hiring multiple singers, renting dozen of huge loud speakers dangling above the crowds by heavy equipment,and producing thousands of those little pink flags, flyers, banners, could not have been too cheap.
Oh well, maybe they will have to come back again now to protest their 100,000 Euro fine, that they have loudly protested as “unfair”. Maybe this time though, they will have to stay off the grass at Champ de Mars. Laissez les bons temps rouler, as we say back in Louisiana!