Several hundreds of protestors crowded London’s Trafalgar Square rallying against and for marriage equality, this afternoon. Photo by Nicolas Chinardet

Several hundreds of pro and anti marriage equality protestors rallied to London’s Trafalgar Square, this afternoon.

The anti-equality protest started today (24 March) at 2pm and was organized by the French La Manif Pour Tous (March For All) campaign group.

Over twenty young children were forced to stand at the base of Nelson’s Column, shouting ‘Uphold Marriage’ as well as anti-gay slurs and holding banners in the freezing cold against gay marriage.

Organizers claimed as many as 2,000 people participated in their protest against gay marriage.

London co-ordinator Damien Fournier Montgieux, criticized the UK and French governments’ bid to legalize marriage equality: ‘Almost out of nowhere we are suddenly faced with a huge challenge to the future of marriage and the family in both France and the UK.

‘There has been no warning or consultation with the people.

‘It is children and the future generations that will suffer most as a result of these unjust changes.

‘This is now a pan-European challenge and it needs a pan-European response’.

One of the main speakers, Alan Craig, of the Anti-gay ‘Anglican Mainstream’ group declared that the UK and France are ‘united’ by a ‘willingness to stand up against sudden attacks on the vital institution of marriage’.

He slammed the UK prime minister, for supporting gay marriage, saying ‘David Cameron has bananas in his ears. He is not listening to us. The government are not listening to us’.

Despite organizes saying they were against homophobia, Craig alleged that ‘two men cannot be naturally intimate and consume one another by an activity’.

Other protestors shouted against adoption by ‘homosexuals who have an “interest” in children’.

Although fewer in numbers, the pro-equality protestors voiced their opposition with rainbow flags, shouting ‘shame on you!’ and ‘no bigots here!’.

‘The protest was supported by the Secular Europe Campaign, a coalition of over 80 European secularist associations. In particular members of the British Humanist Association, the Central London Humanists,  National Secular Society and the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association, were there today standing for universal human rights and equal marriage’ told Marco Tranchino, one of the organizers, to Gay Star News.

Student Eliza Goroya showed her support for marriage equality and anti-bigotry by going bare-breasted FEMEN style.

She tweeted: ‘Just went FEMEN against the anti-equality bigots at Trafalgar Sq. Feels good to be on the right side of history’.

Student Eliza Goroya showed her support for marriage equality and anti-bigotry by going bare-breasted FEMEN style. Photo by Nicolas Chinardet.

Nicolas Chinardet, blogger and LGBT rights advocate French ex-pat who lives in London told Gay Star news: ‘Most of the anti-gay protestors were French white upper middle class.

‘I found it particularly strange that the Manif Pour Tous protestors were talking about children’s rights, yet they made toddlers stand out in the cold and forced them to say things they probably don’t event understand’.

Chinardet, who is also a GSN contributor, also said that ‘despite the organizers claiming they are a grass roots campaign group without funding, they certainly had banners, leaflets and t-shirts which appear to have been well financed’.

‘I also find it curious that the Manif Pour Tous say they represent the mainstream and are not a religious campaign group, yet it sported religious figures, including Craig, the Anglican priest, evangelical groups and even a monk’.

Today’s protest in London coincided with larger protest by the Manif Pour Tous in Paris.

The National Assembly of France has already voted for the gay marriage bill which was last week approved by law commission of the French Senate; the bill will be put to a vote in the Senate in just over a week’s time.

The final text of the legislation will now be voted on by the full Senate in 15 days time.

The ‘Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill’ for England and Wales had its first reading on 24 January and debated in the House of Commons on 5 February.

The bill was later approved on second reading in a 400–175 vote.

Gay Star News | Dan Littauer | 24th March 2013

Lawyers for three members of the feminist punk group Pussy Riot are contesting their convictions in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Maria Alekhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich, and Natalia Tolokonnikova were sentenced to two years in prison for their irreverent “punk prayer” in Moscow’s main cathedral last February against Vladimir Putin’s return to Russian presidency.

Ms Samutsevich was later released on appeal.

The complaint filed on Wednesday alleges that the group’s conviction violates four articles of the European Convention on Human Rights guaranteeing freedom of speech, the right to liberty and security, the prohibition of torture and the right to a fair trial.

The conviction on charges of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” has sparked global outrage, drawing attention to Russia’s intolerance of dissent under Mr Putin.

Breaking News IE | 7th February 2013

Same-sex marriage has been approved in England and Wales by a big majority in a key vote in Parliament. The Commons voted in favour of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, by 400 to 175, a majority of 225. But this is just the first of several votes needed for the bill to pass.

Member of Parliament Mike Freer, who is in a civil partnership, spoke passionately for equality in the debate. His fundamental argument was based on the fact that if equality exists, it must exist on all levels.

He told me outside the parliament that although he was privileged to be elected MP, his proudest day was when he started his civil partnership. Watch the interview here.

Reverend David Braid came all the way from Liverpool to call gay people paedophiles and accuse gay teachers of teaching their students to “become” gay. He said his wife had to cancel an operation because she was told she may get blood transfusion from homosexuals. He said he wanted to help gay people because they carried dangerous diseases. He was very confused about everything.

But the argument put forward by equality campaigners revolved around humans being treated as humans.

“Those who are oppose same sex marriage are basically saying that they support discrimination, and that gay couples are unworthy. That’s profoundly insulting. In a democratic society everyone should be equal before the law,” high-profile gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell told me.

Watch campaigners who spoke to euronews here.

Stonewall is a major organisation that defends gay and lesbian rights. Their spokesman Andy Wasley told me Home Office figures show more than 4,000 hate crimes a year against gay people in the UK. This is appalling considering this country is one of the most tolerant in the world.

He also criticised the language used by some of the parliamentarians during the debate. Watch the interview here.

The bill is passed and it is truly a historic day for equality. But some important questions remain: Why is there a debate on this subject in the first place? Why sexuality of people should be ground for discrimination against them? This is the 21st century and we are at the heart of the so-called “civilised” world, but still we categorise people as heterosexual, homosexual, transsexual and so on and so forth. To me, this division is as absurd as categorising people with their skin colour – a totally false argument. We are only people, nothing else and nothing more.

Caroline Lucas Green Party MP concluded:

“There’s still a long way to go. Changing people’s values and culture takes a long time. Sometimes you have to change the laws first if you can, and that’s what we are doing now. And I think, you know, in a few years time people will look back to today and think what was all the fuss about.”

Follow euronews London correspondent Ali May’s updates on Twitter: https://twitter.com/may_euronews

EuroNews | 6th February 2013

France has taken an big step towards allowing same-sex marriage and giving gay couples the right to adopt children.

The Assembly in Paris approved a clause that is central in the controversial draft law by 249 votes to 97.

If the bill is passed as whole, this vote means two people will no longer have to be of different gender to have the right to marry each other.

The planned reform has already led to vigorous debate and robust opposition. There were gatherings to protest against the parliament’s vote in towns and cities all over France.

Demonstrating in Paris against a change in the law, Christine Rosset said: “Marriage has a very specific connotation. It’s a mother and a father who aim to have children. So it’s not two people of the same sex. That’s outside the nature of the word marriage.”

The French Assembly began debating the bill as a whole earlier in the week.
Such are the sentiments that it has aroused that more than 5,000 amendments to the draft have been presented.

Even with MPs working through the weekends, the debate is expected to last two weeks.

EuroNews | 3rd Febraury 2013

Hope Knutsson, President of Sidmennt, The Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association

Today,  January 30, 2013, the Icelandic Parliament (Althing) passed a law which gives secular life stance organizations the right to apply for equal legal status with religions. The new law amends the current law about registered religious organizations. Thus, for the first time in Icelandic history, the government recognizes and guarantees equality between secular and religious life stances!

Sidmennt, the Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association has been lobbying for such a change for more than 10 years and celebrates this historic turning point. As soon as the law takes effect, Sidmennt will apply to the Ministry of the Interior for registration which will guarantee equal rights and freedom of conscience to its 300 members.  Sidmennt is grateful to the Minister of the Interior, Ogmundur Jonasson, who introduced and championed this human rights bill and to all those members of Parliament who voted in favor of it.

An additional improvement provided by this law is that newborn babies will no longer automatically be registered into the religion of the mother, but rather according to the religious or life stance registration of both parents, and only if the registrations match. Sidmennt members and many other people in Iceland including many legislators feel that this does not go far enough and that it is a human rights violation for government to be involved at all in registering people’s religious affiliation and is especially abnormal to register newborn babies in a religion. The sponsors of the new law say they want to work towards abolishing this anachronism but think it can only be done in stages.

Although this law is an important step towards equality, the government is not changing the privileged status of the Evangelical Lutheran State Church, which enjoys both legal and financial privileges over all other life stance organizations.

Hope Knutsson
President of Sidmennt

Sidmennt | 30th January 2013

Sidmennt – The Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association