Paris Nixes Anti-Gay March

Citing security concerns, the Paris police department has denied the permit of anti-gay groups who planned to march down the Champs-Elysées in a massive rally against same-sex marriage.  A previous such march in Paris drew an estimated 300,000 protesters earlier this year.

In a statement published on Thursday, the Paris police said that they had notified protest organisers in the past that a demonstration on the Champs Elysée was an “impossibility.” “In order to ensure freedom of assembly, preserve public order and protect institutions, the police chief… invited the organisers to get in touch with its services to study possible alternative routes, which was not done,” the statement read. Organisers of the protest have dismissed the police’s stance on the issue, insisting that they should be given the right to march on the Champs Elysées. “We want a symbolic place that will allow the French public and the government to see that we exist en masse,” Frigide Barjot, a figurehead of the anti-gay marriage movement, told the Reuters news agency. “We’re going to continue talking to find a solution,” Barjot added.

The march was scheduled for March 24th as a last-ditch effort to thwart the pending marriage equality bill.  The lower chamber of France’s national legislature voted overwhelmingly to approve the bill last month.  The Senate takes up the bill on April 4th and easy passage is predicted.

UPDATE: JMG reader David writes from Paris with a translation of the latest defiant press release from the group planning the march.

At this very moment, a “Manif Pour Tous” delegation is leaving the Paris Police Prefecture. We regret this new refusal of all our proposals and we hope for credible alternative offers from city officials. Negotiations are underway. No official ban on the march has been served as of today. The freedom to hold a protest march is a constitutional right guaranteed to all citizens, one which we shall defend as we defend children’s rights. On this coming March 24th, we will march massively on Paris in a responsible, peaceful, and legal manner. Hundreds of thousands of citizens from every region of France have already organized to travel to Paris to join the demonstration. We will neither silence them nor will we let up. We won’t give up anything!