Posted on 03/24/2013 5:47:22 PM PDT by Maelstorm
PARIS — Paris police used tear gas and batons to fight crowds who pushed their way onto the landmark Champs-Elysees avenue and toward the presidential palace as part of a huge protest against a draft law allowing same-sex couples to marry and adopt children.
Hundreds of thousands of people - conservative activists, schoolchildren with their parents, retirees, priests - converged on the capital Sunday in a last-ditch bid to stop the bill, many bused in from the French provinces.
The violence took protesters and police by surprise, and suggested that the anti-gay marriage protests have become outlets for anger and disappointment in the presidency of Francois Hollande's presidency.
The lower house of France's parliament approved the "marriage for everyone" bill last month with a large majority, and it's facing a vote in the Senate next month. Both houses are dominated by Hollande's Socialist Party and its allies.
Sustained protests led by opposition conservatives in this traditionally Catholic country have eroded support for the draft law in recent months, and organizers hope Sunday's march will swing the Senate debate against it.
The first few hours of the protest were peaceful. But as it was meant to be winding down, about 100 youths tried to push past police barricades onto the Champs-Elysees, a tree-lined avenue that cuts through central Paris and draws throngs of tourists daily. In an indication of the sensitivity of the issue, protesters had been barred from marching on the Champs.
(Excerpt) Read more at idahostatesman.com ...
Well...you don’t see many in the USA in the streets in the defense of traditional marriage. I applaud the French on this.
Thanks. Maybe there is hope.
Ah! I see. Americans have never really been on such things. That will take some doing!
Just came from Mass. We live in a world where the priest, during homily, apologizes for criticizing gay marriage and adoption proponents, and then criticizes the former popes at will - and not for their going against the Church, but for writing too intellectually, as if that’s a sin.
I’m not criticizing him. He means well and he’s a priest, after all.
Just saying that when people are caught up in this culture they don’t realize it and they think they’re courageous.
But talking and knowing about something is not the same as getting out and protesting something knowing it’s going to bring personal sacrifice and suffering like the French are doing.
We rely on authorities and the military do fight for us.
The Euros know what it is to have the fight in their own yard.
And we are put to shame when we call them surrender monkeys when they do this demonstration if we don’t do the same.
Anyway, good for them.
I agree. May the French - via Normandy - realize their inner Viking and fight!
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