Nathan Dize

The second act of the Manif Pour Tous against gay marriage and reproductive rights.

This week I’ve heard many people say “I’ll be in Paris this weekend.” If you live anywhere else in France there are many reasons to go to Paris for a weekend – especially for the Nuit Blanche Festival this past Saturday – because it is the cultural and political center of France. However, I also noticed that when people told me, or said in passing they were going to Paris that they never said why.

I found myself wondering whether people were going to the second round of the anti-gay marriage protests organized by the rightwing, religious group the “Manif Pour Tous” (Manifestation for all) – there is also a protest in Bordeaux this weekend. Rather than speculate on whether people I’ve met are in favor of or against the Manif Pour Tous, I wanted to explain what the Manif Pour Tous is and why it is causing such a stir in France, despite its relative lack of coverage in the US.

The Manif Pour Tous is a conservative, religious movement in France that protests three main principals: gay marriage, women who offer their wombs as surrogates for couples incapable of having children – including heterosexual couples (GPA)—and medically assisted precreation like artificial insemination (PMA).