There is a growing chorus of gay people in France who oppose President Hollande's proposal to legalize gay marriage.
Here is one voice -- Phillipe Arino -- explaining his views (we also offer an approximate English translation below by one of our generous French-speaking supporters):
I am Philippe Ariño, 32 years old, essayist about homosexuality and Spanish teacher.
Your thoughts on "marriage" for all?
I oppose this proposed law. I believe it's homophobic. First off, I think society is giving this to homosexuals for the sake of society itself, but it's without meaning.Even worse, another reason that I think this is homophobic is this: This law encourages homosexual couples to think they can copy and fit in the way heterosexual couples do. It makes them think they have to follow the example of man, woman, and child, without respecting sexual difference. It denies respect to homosexual couples in reality, with regards to their specificity and who they really are. Gay couples do not exist so that they can be procreative; one doesn't recognize that (if one turns these into marriages). Even if you present this to gay couples like it's a gift, it's still denying who they really are.
But then, what about equality of rights?
It's not a question of equality. Equality isn't inherently positive. There are bad/wrong equalities. We call that conformism, uniformity. A lack of recognition to the realities of people. The gay activists who treat equality as sacred do not differentiate between equal rights and the equality of identity. Equality of the law, and equality of self-respect or dignity.Adoption?
In my view, all kids need more than just two parents who love each other. They need two biological parents -- mother and father -- who love each other. Nobody is speaking about that condition for the development of the child. It would be a condition where desire and nature are conjoined. Let's say a child knows of its biological parents but knows that its parents do not really love one another. That's a trauma that it will carry like a burden, all its life. When people talk about gay adoptive parents, they talk a great deal about the feeling of the parents toward the child, but they don't speak about the difference of sex which is "crowned" with love. That's central, that will be with one for all one's life. One must know that one had more than just a biological origin -- also, that one came from true desire. And one must know that the two are linked.
The largest pro-marriage demonstration to date in France is schedule to take place this Sunday!
"...For almost two centuries, equality before the law had been denied to Americans of African descent; that blatant injustice was challenged by a movement of moral persuasion and legal maneuver; the movement was ultimately vindicated by a change of hearts, minds, and statutes. If then, on matters of race, why not now, on the question of who can marry? That’s the argument; it has considerable emotive power.
"...In light of the legality of same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia and now Maryland, the Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, decided in December to allow an expansion of the Christian marriage sacrament. The diocese covers the district and four counties in Maryland. The change is allowed under a "local option" granted by the church's General Convention, church leaders said. Each priest in the diocese can then decide whether to perform same-sex unions.
Christopher Plante, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage-Rhode Island, told CitizenLink he’s confident “that we will be able to beat this.”
[Same-sex marriage is] a magnet for controversy and evokes strong reactions from those on either side of the debate. But underneath the fiery passion and rhetoric, we must evaluate the real arguments.
Calling same-sex marriage immoral and unnecessary, while also expressing concern for the spiritual welfare of those with same-sex attraction,
“Everyone is looking at the Supreme Court. What happens then defines a lot of more about what happens next in the fight,” said Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage
Yet it struck me that if denying same-sex couples the “right to marry” was such an obvious and gross injustice as to merit such energetic claims today, why had it never occurred to either of these august scholars decades ago, at the beginning or the middle of their careers? In the books of proud advocacy each had published, say, twenty or thirty years ago, there was not the slightest hint that American public life was disfigured by this particular injustice.
