Post date: Jan 13, 2013 5:44:13 PM
About 800,000 demonstrators turned out in Paris to protest plans by French President Francois Hollande's Socialist government to legalise gay marriage, according to organisers -- more than twice police estimates.
PARIS, FRANCE (JANUARY 13, 2013) (REUTERS) - Organisers of an anti-gay marriage protest in Paris said 800,000 turned out to the demonstration on Sunday (January 17) against government plans for same-sex weddings while police put the number at 340,000.
Three separate columns of protesters -- including a mix of Catholics, conservatives, Muslims, evangelicals and homosexuals against gay -- filed through the French capital and converged under the Eiffel Tower.Strongly backed by the Catholic hierarchy, lay activists have mobilised a coalition of church-going families, political conservatives, Muslims, evangelicals and even homosexuals opposed to gay marriage.
Support for gay marriage in France has slipped by about 10 percentage points to under 55 percent since opponents began speaking out, according to surveys, and fewer than half of those polled recently wanted gays to win adoption rights.
Under this pressure, legislators dropped a plan to also allow lesbians access to artificial insemination.
Organisers insist they are not against gays and lesbians but for traditional marriage and only allowed approved posters and banners to be displayed.
Slogans included "marriagophile, not homophobe," "all born of a father and mother" and "paternity, maternity, equality."
Same-sex weddings are legal in 11 countries including Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Norway and South Africa, as well as nine U.S. states and Washington D.C.