We gathered today at Denfert Rochereau, the protest march capital of Paris, which also happens to be our neighborhood, waiting for la Manifestation en faveur du mariage pour tous (the Pro-Gay Marriage March) to begin. My nine-year-old daughter carried her sign high above her head, its stars and swirls spelling “Enfants, nous soutenons le mariage pour tous” (Children Support Marriage for All). I carried mine, too, substituting Straight People for Children. My husband James came, too, even though he was sick.
The crowds were heartening (from 125,000 to 400,00, according to the French newspaper Le Monde). A few weeks earlier an Anti-Gay Marriage protest march had drawn from 340,000 to 800,000. Church buses from all over France had been parked near the huge lion statue at Denfert Rochereau, and provincial parishioners had spilled out onto the city streets.
So we thought it was important to show support for the other side. The Socialist government will soon introduce a bill to legalize marriage for gay people, and we wanted everyone to see that even heterosexual families care about this issue.
But I was unprepared for our reception. Many people asked to photograph us with our signs (my daughter, especially, but James and me, too). Others just said “thank you” to us as they walked by. Two women asked if they could hug us. “Yes, of course,” we said. “Merci, merci d’etre ici” (Thank you, thank you for being here), they said. I could see James get choked up, struggling to hold back the tears almost as much as I was. It was one of the most moving experiences I’ve had here.