24 April 2013

French Mariage pour Tous moves forward

Yesterday afternoon, the French parliament voted to send the law known as « Le Mariage pour Tous » to the President of the Republic for his signature. The vote wasn't close: 331 députés voted for the law, and 225 voted against it. Le Mariage pour Tous — "marriage for all," or marriage equality — is a reform that Socialist François Hollande campaigned on in 2012, when he won the presidency.

The new marriage-equality proposal faces one more hurdle before it can be signed into law ("promulgated") by the French president. Opponents have filed a challenge with the Consitutional Council, a body that can overturn proposed laws on constitutional grounds. Most people think the marriage-equality law will pass muster, because the chairman of the council has already said that it is the French parliament's role to define the country's marriage laws.

Opponents of the new law have turned the months-long debate over same-sex marriage into a real circus. The "establishment" right wing has been put in the uncomfortable position of appearing arm in arm with members of the extreme Front National party in recent demonstrations. Coverage on French television has shown demonstrators who look a lot like thugs and vandals throwing rocks and bottles at police, and chanting slogans saying police should be out patrolling immigrant neighborhoods in the Paris suburbs rather than deployed to put down legitimate demonstrations.

The leader of the anti-Mariage-pour-Tous movement is a woman whose pseudonym, Frigide Barjot, couldn't have been better chosen by a political satirist. The meaning of Frigide is pretty clear, and Barjot is a slang word meaning "reckless to the point of nuttiness." The term « barjot » [bar-ZHO] is an example of  "syllable-inversion" (verlan) slang and is based on the older term « jobard » [zho-BAR], meaning "gullible, easily duped, a sucker." The whole name is a kind of pun on the name of another famous and possibly nutty Frenchwoman, Brigitte Bardot.

Personally, I've been really surprised (not to say disappointed) at how polarized France has turned out to be on the question of same-sex marriage. Belgium adopted its marriage-equality law about 15 years ago, without much controversy. Reputedly conservative countries like Spain and Portugal have also instituted marriage equality — not to mention the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries. Or New York, Maryland, Maine, Washington, and other U.S. states. Despite its reputation as a secular and enlightened champion of human-rights, France has not led the way on marriage equality, that's for sure. (Nor has my native North Carolina, by the way, but no one would have expected it to.)

27 comments:

  1. And now to the Conseil Constitutionnel, which will nitpik its way through the bill for a month before deciding to validate or invalidate it. The Conseil has been ruling against Hollande's measures a lot in this past year, so it's not a sure passage. If validated, Hollande can sign it into law. If not, then it'll be back to square one and I'm not sure he'll want to push it with so much else going wrong for him at the same time.

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  2. Hi Ellen, according to the New York Times: "In a 2011 decision, the court (i.e. le Conseil Constitutionnel) found that it was not its role to rule on the legal boundaries of marriage."

    We shall see.

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  3. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152809678590647&set=pb.60236215646.-2207520000.1366787570.&type=3&theater
    Makes me feel unhappy about living in France.

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  4. I was in Paris over the weekend. While I wasn't surprised at the fact or opportunistic tactics of the opposition (boy, they're sore at losing the last election), it was slightly alarming that there was so much talk about this as a marker for a broader disenchantment with the political system, radicalisation (to the right) of a new generation, and more than a few hints of the old, more extreme, left-right polarities of the Third and Fourth Republics raising their heads again. Or maybe that was just excitable journalists.

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  5. Kirsty, me too, some days, but overall I'm happy here. The French are very vocal when it comes to politics, and pretty conservative in social matters. Got your e-mail and will be in touch.

    Patrick, you're right about all that. There's also a taste for political theater and drama here that can't be underestimated. Isn't there something vaguely medieval about the name Frigide Barjot and the role she's been playing?

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  6. I was caught up in the demonstrations on blvd Raspail on Sun while I was trying to get to Fondation Cartier for an exhibit. There were, as you can imagine, a lot of police and several security men kept trying to get me to join the protestors. If my French were better, I'd have told them what they could have done with all those pink and blue, un mere et un pere, flags! And because of the demonstrations, the museum closed its doors so I will have to try another day.

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  7. Ken, I had the impression Frigide Barjot was already a cabaret act of some sort. Not exactly Pam Ann, but I assumed in a similar sort of area of the market.

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  8. Wikipedia says that Frigide Barjot's father was a close associate of Jean-Marie Le Pen and was known to invite him to stay at his chateau near Lyon. Frigide describes herself as "a Gaullist republican" who is "viscerally" attached to her country and its Christian roots. For years, she has been a regular in trendy Paris nightclubs, including gay bars.

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  9. i was really surprised at the recent anti-gay violence and demonstrations.....I assumed it would be no problem for the bill to pass...but the homophobes came out of the woodwork.....
    Ken, let's hope the federal gov't/supremes mandate a policy for all the states (which may be the only way NC will get there!)

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  10. It just goes to show you that there is no perfect country. Still the changes seem to be moving in the right (meaning left) direction in France and the US as well.

    I remember French people making racist remarks to me when I was there in the early 60s- they did this when they thought I was a Southerner since I was from KY. They didn't know that many Kentucky people fought for the North in the Civil War. Remember France backed the Confederacy in that war.

    Speaking of Confederacy. Alabama state employees still get holidays on Confederate Memorial Day and Jefferson Davis' birthday. Living in the past here! Rant over.

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  11. I'm sure it will all work itself out in the end.

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  12. My son's reply to me: Don't get concerned about other people with narrow views too much. The other day I stood up for a seemingly nice (though over talkative) old foreign accented lady on the tube. As we transferred trains at Camden she told me enthusiastically that she also was off to an anti gay marriage protest... These people have nothing better to do with their lives! On the plus side many of my gay French friends are excited and one couple got engaged yesterday :) (although they adds already "pacsed". Much of the tumult will pass French people are good at protesting - but they tend to adapt to the times eventually nonetheless!

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  13. I was caught up in the demonstrations on blvd Raspail on Sun while I was trying to get to Fondation Cartier for an exhibit. There were, as you can imagine, a lot of police and several security men kept trying to get me to join the protestors. If my French were better, I'd have told them what they could have done with all those pink and blue, un mere et un pere, flags! And because of the demonstrations, the museum closed its doors so I will have to try another day.

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  14. Ken

    Heard this morning on the radio that the thugs were at it again last night .

    Both Y and I were surprised to see how polarised this has become and the number of protesters against gay marriage. Y said last night: "what about Egalité " and I replied "où est passée la laïcité?" that they keep mentioning .

    BTW: Have you heard from CHM?

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  15. Kristy, thank you for posting Senator Atkinson quote on FB.
    Where is the "douce France" I used to know?

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  16. Nadege, I was thinking of the same song as I was reading about the anti-gay riots throughout France:
    "Douce France, bercée de tendre insouciance".
    Anti-Marriage For All Paris Thugs

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  17. I am a bit surprised to hear of the passion against equal marriage rights, not that I care for that sort of thing. Worse to hear was a rise in homophobia, even violence against gays.

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  18. Andrew, marriage rights have a very practical aspect to them. For example, if I were to die tomorrow, Walt would have to pay 60% of the value of my half of our house in taxes because we are not a married couple, despite our 30 years together and our NY marriage certificate. Does that seem fair?

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  19. Here's another example of the practical side of this issue. Because WA state passed their version of "mariage pour tous" last November, a colleague of mine is now assured that his spouse (male partner of 25 years) will be eligible to receive our workplace pension were my colleague to die. Prior to their marriage, the pension would have ended with my colleague's death.

    What really bugs me is reading about people like Mark Sanford, the filandering, disgraced ex-governor of S.C. who received all of the legal benefits of marriage yet admitted to having cheated on his wife multiple times throughout the years and then ultimately dumped her for a much younger woman. As governor, Mark Sanford gave long speeches about how marriage is a sacred institution that gays could not be trusted with. He consistently voted against civil unions and was adamant that marriage be defined as one-man-one-woman. Nothing worse than a hypocrite.

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  20. You go, Dean. Retirement pensions are something that spouses can inherit from one another in
    France, but partners in civil unions (le PACS) cannot. That's another reason why marriage equality matters.

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  21. Nous ne sommes qu'à 100 ans de l'an mille, dans une société encore très influencées par des croyances, dont certaines confinent à l'obscurantisme. Il n'y a pas si longtemps en France, on obligeait les gaucher à écrire de la main droite...

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  22. Je voulais écrire à 1000 ans de l'an mille.

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  23. Typically, the US is dragging its ass behind the REAL free and progressive countries of the world!!!!

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  24. Dean, read this blog and particularly the comments http://undertheburningbridge.blogspot.com/2013/04/two-photos-same-people.html#comment-form

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  25. It's a mystery why marriage equality laws pass in some countries/states and not in others. I was surprised at how easily it passed in Washington state but lost in California. Maybe France is riding the conservative wave that seems to be sweeping much of the world these days. I think the pendulum will swing the other way--and let's hope it's sooner rather than later.

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  26. The French protesters are against -- just plain against. Doesn't matter what they're against. Once this to do dies down, they'll be against something else.
    The vast majority of the French are actually in favor of "mariage pour tous". However, with marriage comes adoption rights and then you get in to medically assisted parenthood and that is where the dilemma is, in the eyes of many.
    I think people will come around to the fact that adoption will not be any more traumatic than it is in other married couples, but in France, adoption laws are different from most countries, but will end up coming around. The problem of medically assisted parenthood between female couples, who would be able to resort to donor sperm, and male couples, who would not be able to resort to surrogate mothers. This inequality is a real problem here and that is where the conseil constitutionnel might base its ruling.

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