Tens of thousands of gay rights supporters marched through Paris on Saturday to mark the city’s 10th Gay Pride weekend, buoyed by New York’s move to legalise same-sex marriage.
In New York on Friday, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a bill legalising gay marriage, delivering a powerful victory for gay rights advocates in one of the most populous and influential states of the union.
Gay rights activists chanted and danced in the streets of New York city as news spread that the Republican-controlled state senate had narrowly approved the “Marriage Equality Act”.
Cuomo signed the measure, which will take effect in 30 days, into law just before midnight on Friday (4am GMT Saturday).
Cheers erupted in the senate galleries in the state capital Albany when the legislators voted 33-29 to approve the measure after weeks of intense wrangling. The 29 Democratic senators were joined by four Republicans, one more than the minimum needed to get the bill approved.
Cuomo, who had lobbied hard for the measure, beamed after it was approved.
“Democracy works when the people speak. And the people spoke in volumes over these past few months. And this legislature responded this week to their calls,” Cuomo said at a press conference soon after the vote.
Pride shared
In Paris, mayor Bertrand Delanoe and a host of politicians joined those taking part in a massive march, attended by tens of thousands of gay-rights supporters, and organised by rights group Inter-LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) and involving more than 80 associations.
The march came in the wake of a vote mid-June by the national assembly that rejected a socialist bid to legalise gay marriage.
Although the left voted for the plan, a large proportion of the United Popular Movement (UMP)-New Centre majority were opposed.
According to a poll of a 1 000 people for the Dimanche Ouest-France newspaper however, 63% back the idea, with 58% backing the right of same-sex couples to adopt.
Voters on the right are less enthusiastic, with 41% in favour of gay marriage and 37% for adoption.
“It’s not yet the time to say who to vote for but it’s about saying to politicians, from now on, that we won’t give up when it comes to this issue,” Inter-LGBT spokesperson Nicolas Gougain said ahead of the march.
The LGBT vote
The event had as its slogan “Marching for equality in 2011, I’ll vote in 2012,” in reference to the upcoming presidential election.
Among the participants were the Socialist Party’s Jack Lang and Emmanuel Blanc, president of Gaylib, the UMP’s gay association, who wrote on his blog in April: “If you want our vote, give us our rights!”
The decision by New York senators to approve the Marriage Equality Act gave hope to activists, Gougain said.
“It shows that others are progressing, while we in France are going nowhere,” he said.
Inter-LGBT is calling for the legal recognition of gay families, of same-sex marriage, the right for gay couples to adopt and a law making it easier for transexuals to change their civil status.
The march was set to conclude at Bastille square at 8pm (6pm GMT) with a evening of entertainment including a performance by singer Arielle Dombasle.
Last year’s march attracted 99 000 people, according to police estimates: organisers put the number much higher at 800 000.
Gay pride events were held throughout Europe and the rest of the world on Saturday, in memory of the first big uprising of LGBT people against police assaults that took place in New York’s Christopher Street in the district of Greenwich Village, included the Stonewall riots, on June 28, 1969. — AFP