PARIS — Anti-gay marriage activists in France went on the attack Friday, firing off violent rhetoric following passage of a marriage equality bill in the French Senate.
French comic Frigide Barjot, leader of the Manif pour tous (Demo for all), France’s mainstream anti-gay marriage movement, reacted angrily on Friday after the French government announced it would bring forward to next Wednesday the National Assembly’s final hearing on a bill which would legalize gay marriage in France, reported The Local.
“This is a disgrace. The French people don’t want this law, and what do they do? They speed up its passage. (French President Francois) Hollande wants blood, and he will get it,” Barjot was quoted as saying by France’s TF1, adding “We live in a dictatorship. The President of the Republic has guillotined us.”
Centre-right UMP deputy Christian Jacob joined the fray, saying in a statement that by accelerating the bill’s now almost certain passage into law, “the President of the Republic is risking a violent confrontation with the French people.”
Fellow UMP deputy Hervé Mariton denounced the move as “an incitement to civil war.”
Earlier in the week, Barjot insisted the anti-gay marriage movement is opposed to violence.
Earlier in the week, gay rights activists pointed to last weekend’s attack on a gay couple in Paris as evidence of their claim that homophobic acts have tripled nationwide over opposition to the marriage equality law.
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Wilfred De Bruijn was beaten unconscious near his home early Sunday in central Paris, sustaining five fractures in his head and face, abrasions and a lost tooth.
Barjot has previously insisted the anti-gay marriage movement is opposed to violence.
President Francois Hollande made legalizing same-sex marriage one of the planks in his 60-point program on the way to winning the presidency last May over conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy.