Nationwide protests in France against gay marriage
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E-mail Xinhua, January 14, 2013
Tens of thousands of French protesters took to the streets across the country on Sunday to protest against the country's plan to legalize same-sex marriage and to allow adoption for same-sex couples.
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Demonstrators gather on the Champ de Mars near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, to protest France's planned legalisation of same-sex marriage, Jan 13, 2013.[Photo: Agencies] |
According to organizers of the so-called "Demo for All" event, which opposes the government's "marriage for all" bill, about 500,000 participants will take part in the massive demonstrations. Five high-speed trains, 900 buses and hundreds of cars were provided to help protesters join the capital marches.
But police put the number of participants at about 120,000.
In Paris, thousands of people headed by politicians from the conservative right-wing parties walked in a festive atmosphere towards the Eiffel Tower, where floods of protestors will finally converge late in the afternoon "to defend the concept of family, father, mother, child."
"We love homosexuals but a child must be born from a man and a woman, and the law must respect that. We would like all the country to take up this subject because it is not just about our privacy, it concerns especially the future generations," Frigide Barjot, a Catholic artist and a protest organizer, told the news channel BFMTV.
The Socialist government approved the bill to allow same-sex couples to marry and adopt children in November 2012. During his election campaign, President Francois Hollande promised the legislation would be endorsed by mid-2013.
Polls have showed that a majority of French voters back gay marriage, but are split on the issue of adoption.
The draft law will be presented to parliament at the end of January.
Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden currently allow gay couples to marry and adopt children.
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