A court of appeals in France ruled the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP, insulted an anti-LGBTQ group in 2013 by plastering posters of a controversial leader all over Paris. The posters featured a photograph of Ludovine La Rochère and the word “homophobe” on it.
The court ruled the former president of the Paris branch of ACTUP, Laure Pora must pay a fine of $889 to La Manif pour tous, plus court courts exceeding $1,660.
The anti-LGBTQ group is supported by a pro-life group Jerome Lejeune Foundation, which also employs La Rochère, according to Gay Star News. Activists threw condoms filled with fake blood against the wall and put up posters in a protest against the foundation and La Manif pour tous. The posters also featured the group’s logo.
‘Describing La Manif pour tous as homophobic is a criminal offence,’ claimed the organization’s lawyer, Henri de Beauregard, according to Le Monde. The attorney representing ACT UP, Karine Géronimi, called the court’s decision ‘particularly unfair’ and said she couldn’t see an insult.
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The ruling breaks precedent, GSN reports, in that a lower court tossed out the complaint, calling it “inappropriate for a procedural problem,” and the fact that a former senator was cleared in a similar lawsuit two years ago, for calling La Manif pour tous “the worst kind of homophobia.”
