Brandishing placards and flags proclaiming, “Humans are not a commodity” and “No to the demolition of the family,” tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Paris Sunday to oppose what they call the government’s “anti-family” policies, reports FRANCE 24.
As the march made its way through the affluent neighbourhoods of west Paris, some residents hung banners of support and cheered on the demonstrators from their windows.
The protesters, including a mix of hardline Catholics and traditional conservatives, declared their opposition to a number of causes, including surrogate mothers and artificial insemination technology for non-married couples.
Above all, the demonstrators wanted to deliver the message that “all children need a mother and a father,” said Caroline, a 54-year-old retiree from Paris, as she waved a flag with a picture of a man, a woman and two children standing hand-in-hand – the symbol of the Manif pour Tous movement that organised the rally.
“It is something that is commanded by nature, it is a fundamental right for a child,” she added.
Manif pour Tous was behind a number of often fierce, sometimes violent and ultimately unsuccessful protests against France’s legalizing of gay marriage in May 2013.
Literally translated as “The protest for all,” Manif pour Tous is a play on “Marriage Pour Tous” – the name of the 2013 gay marriage law, which triggered hundreds of thousands to take to the streets across France.
Those protests failed to stop the bill passing, however, and polls now show the majority of French people support same-sex marriage.
Manif pour Tous supporters are still calling for the gay-marriage act to be repealed, but are now also waging a general war against what they call the French government’s “familyphobia”.
“I’m here to tell the government that what they are doing is wrong,” said one protester, a 49-year-old engineer from Paris named Frédéric. “They are destroying the family, the roots of the family and of French society.”
Critics however say many of their fears are unfounded.
Read more of this report from FRANCE 24.