French President Hollande Signs Marriage Bill
The Daily Agenda for Saturday, May 18
Fox News Ignores Marriage Equality Wins
The Era of Civil Unions Is Coming To An End
Orthodox Priests Lead Violent Attack On LGBT Rights Rally in Tbilisi, Georgia
France's Marriage Equality Bill Clears Final Hurdle
The Daily Agenda for Friday, May 17
Marriage Equality Made This Maryland Legislator Drive Drunk
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Paul Cameron’s World
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From the Inside: Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out”
On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.
Prologue: Why I Went To “Love Won Out”
Part 1: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Part 2: Parents Struggle With “No Exceptions”
Part 3: A Whole New Dialect
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Part 5: A Candid Explanation For "Change"
The Heterosexual Agenda: Exposing The Myths
At last, the truth can now be told.
Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!
And don't miss our companion report, How To Write An Anti-Gay Tract In Fifteen Easy Steps.
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Straight From The Source: What the “Dutch Study” Really Says About Gay Couples
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The FRC’s Briefs Are Showing
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Review: The Gay Report
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News, analysis and fact-checking of anti-gay rhetoric
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Priya Lynn
January 29th, 2011 | LINK
As I’ve always thought with judges, if they’d really like things to be a certain way they’ll have no problem ignoring logic and rational legal principles to rule however they want. At one time judges ruled against interracial marriage, later on they ruled for it. Logic and the overriding legal principles didn’t change, only the outcome they preferred did.
The law is complicated enough that in many cases one can come up with some sort legal argument to support the desired outcome however weak that argument may be.
Timothy (TRiG)
January 29th, 2011 | LINK
A bit sad for what I think it the only country in the world to explicitly triumph equality in its national slogan.
Liberté! Egalité! Fraternité! Maybe one day.
TRiG.
EZam
January 29th, 2011 | LINK
If the SC in FRANCE is that closed-minded, what can you expect from the one in the US?
So what now? How are the chances of the legislature changing the law?
Mark F.
January 29th, 2011 | LINK
France was one of the few countries where homosexuality was legal a century ago, so don’t be too hard on them.
tim
January 29th, 2011 | LINK
I’m fascinated by how Kincaid and other commentors here are suddenly experts in the French Constition and French law. This is more arrogant than the French themselves.
If the French people want to resolve this they will do so and do so in a way consistent with their laws and culture. Stay out of it.
Patrick Garies
January 29th, 2011 | LINK
@tim: Can you clarify what the misinterpretations are?
No government is beyond critique and France is no exception. If there’s misinformation being spread, the first thing you should be doing is correcting the record; inexplicably telling everyone that they are forbidden to comment is hardly constructive.
daftpunkydavid
January 30th, 2011 | LINK
i second both tim’s and patrick garies’ posts.
i will add that, as much as i love france, it has sadly not been at the forefront of human rights when it comes to us queer folks, at least not since 1995, when they passed the pacs.
and although french people are overall very much for equal marriage rights, they are still reluctant to grant adoption rights to gay couples. i therefore partly fault the lgbt associations in france for this massive fail!
finally, due process and equal protection in the us and in france are not the same; if u read the decision, and try to draw parallels to what happens in the us, it sounds as if the constitutional council decided (by what vote margin?) that some rational basis test was applicable; and that there may be indeed reasons to limit marriage to 2 pple of opposite sex, pretty much like the ny state’s highest court had ruled (although the french court did not even give an example of what those reasons may be).
i am not sure this would happen in the united states. at least i hope it won’t.
Rob Lll
January 30th, 2011 | LINK
Disappointed. But not surprised.
I lived in France for a number of years, go back as often as I can, and while I love the country (as much as my own), I’ve long felt that the French reputation for social progressiveness is overstated. Tolerant in many respects, but “tolerance” is not the same as the willingness to grant civic equality. There’s a deeply conservative, even reactionary streak in the culture, especially vis-a-vis anything having to do with family issues — daftpunkydavid is absolutely correct to highlight the issue of adoption rights.
And, of course, there is also flat-out homophobia, Anyone here who reads French might want to check out the message boards at Le Monde, which have been overrun with bigot eruptions, most of which seem to be coming from arch-conservative Catholics. The arguments are, unsurprisingly, identical to what we see here in the States (end of civilization, polygamy and bestiality, what about the children, etc.).
The good news is that the polls I’ve seen show a majority of French people now in favor of marriage equality (with even stronger support among the young), and this may well be an issue in the next presidential election.
So Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité isn’t a reality for everyone, not yet. But they’ll get there. As will we.
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