As workers diligently set about clearing the stage from a last-ditch demonstration in Paris against a recent French law legalising same-sex marriage and adoption on Sunday evening, protest organisers and participants already had their minds geared towards how to keep their movement alive, reports FRANCE 24.
Staged by the organisation Manif Pour Tous, or a demonstration for everyone, hundreds of thousands of people converged on the capital’s central Invalides monument to evince their undiminished opposition to the new measure, which was signed into law by President François Hollande earlier this month.
Some protesters brandished signs that read “Made in Mama + Papa,” while others waved pink and blue flags.
Despite the fact there is little chance the legislation on same-sex marriage and adoption will ever be repealed, Marie-Camille Richard, deputy communications director of Manif Pour Tous, told FRANCE 24, “[The] message is that we’re not letting go of anything, that we’re going to continue to resist.”
“The idea is to show that although the law has been passed, we are still mobilised,” she said. “We are a movement that must now be considered a part of the French political landscape. Not political in the sense that we will engage in politics, but political in the sense that politicians today must recognise our presence.”
While the government has turned the page on same-sex marriage and adoption, the country has yet to address the tricky questions of assisted reproduction and surrogacy for gay and lesbian couples – two points staunchly opposed by France’s social conservative and religious groups.
These issues have not been lost on Manif Pour Tous, which already has plans to channel its immense organising capacity into a number of smaller events in the coming months.
Read more of this report from FRANCE 24.