Are The Anti Gay Marriage Protesters Mainly Religious Based?

[flobadob]

I saw on the news that in France there are serious protestations against the new rights for gay people to get married. Are these protests mostly based on religious ideologies or are there other reasons why people would not agree with gay marriage? If so what other sorts of reasons are there?

[Octavius]

Generally in France it appears to be conservative Catholic/Christian groups and right wing groups arguing along the lines of "one dad and one mom for every child" and "no to genitally modified marriage".

[emmie]

i doubt if they all are.

[craft1948]

Weird in France that the majority are for gay marriage, but against gay adoption...........

[andy-hughes]

Apart from religion, i can only think of homophobia, or an inbuilt unshakable belief that marriage only belongs to straight couples - or the second and third hidden under the first.

[emmie]

this is from a nation of serial philanderers, quite odd really.

[jake-the-peg]

The far right are sticking their noses in and trying to court popularity on the back of it

Marine Le Penn has been milking it for all she's worth ( which isn't a lot )

http://www.france24.com/en/20121102-french-national-front-would-hijack-gay-marriage-protests-marine-le-pen-jean-francois-cope-ump

[emmie]

you ignore someone like her at your peril.

[joggerjayne]

There was an interesting point made on Radio4 a few days ago.

There is a growing tendency to suggest that anyone who does not share your personal view must have a mental illness. So, rather than simply disagreeing with you, you try to characterise them as having an irrational mental fear ... a "phobia"

So, if you support European integration, you label people who disagree with you as "Europhobes"

If you support gay marriage, you label anyone who disagrees with you as "homophobes"

This, in effect, suppresses any free debate because, instead of arguing against the rationale of the other persons point, you just try to encourage everyone to hurl their label at them.

It's an ironic turn around of events because, in many cases, the people who have fought for various freedoms are now seeking to suppress the freedom of anyone else to disagree with them.

And then the programme asked ... in strengthening their own point at the expense of the freedom of others to disagree with you ... what sort of regimes are you reflecting? The answer, of course, was totalitarian regimes, whether fascist, communist, or whatever.

So, the point is what? It is this. We mostly either support gay marriage or, frankly, don't give a stuff either way (like almost every gay person I know). But, of course, there are people who don't support it. So we either take up the debate with them, or ... we encourage people to take sides against them by labelling them as anti-gay, or homophobic, or whatever. We miss the irony of the fact that, whenever a totalitarian regime has tried to isolate a minority group, they have employed the tactic of applying a negative label to the group.

Just a thought.

[joggerjayne]

My point ties in with em's actually.

If you only deal with someone like Marine Le Penn by dismissing her as a homophobe (for instance) then you fail to confront the fundamentals of her argument.

All her supporters see of you is someone who hurls abuse, rather than someone who addresses her point. And that makes her supporters think that she is probably right, and you are probably wrong. Inadvertently, you strengthen her support.

The arguments against gay marriage are rather more involved than a simple dislike of all homosexuals. If we dismiss the opponents of gay marriage as simple homophobes then, in the long run, their position becomes stronger.

[emmie]

she has been taught well,

i am in the band of people who don't care, get married, don't get married, i don't think i am a phobe anything, except perhaps moneyphobe, as i don't have any.

[jno]

I disagree that calling someone "phobic" implies irrationality. If you call someone claustrophobic, it isn't an insult, just a description.

Whether it's correct to imply "fear" is another matter; I don't think it is. I'd be quite happy just calling them anti-gay, which will be accurate for almost all of them.

[emmie]

but some level homophobic, xenophobic insults at people denoting that if you don't agree with their viewpoint you are one.

[modeller]

Answerbank
Gay Marriage …. Again
23:48 Mon 20th May 2013

[jno]

like I say, description; there are many many words for people who don't agree with you, and those are some of them

[wildwood]

I agree with both of JJ's contributions, but I couldn't have put it so succinctly.

[flobadob]

Yay, 2 people out of 15 made some reference to the question. Is that a new record?

[Wharton]

flobadob, I think that in France it's mostly based on religious thought, and cynicism doesn't become you, be grateful for any reply :-)

[Wharton]

@methyl
"uninformed hatred" - good lad :-)

[mikey4444]

Why are some people obsessed about who other people sleep with ? I couldn't care less, but then I am atheist and can make my own mind up about such things rather than have it made up for me.

If you are of one particular religion, than you must, by default, conclude that everybody else, either of another religion, or no religion, must be wrong.

One hopes that such people would be tolerant but very often it isn't the case. That is why most of the protesters against gay marriage are religious.