"It's the face of Homophobia," attack victim Wilfred de Bruijn says. The pending passage of marriage and adoption equality legislation in France has been described by a right-wing parliamentarian as “an incitement to civil war”, as threats of violence increase. On Friday, France’s senate approved the bill, which must now go before the National Assembly one more time before it can be signed into law by President François Hollande. While the final voted was originally scheduled for 20 May, it will now be held on the same day as New Zealand’s final reading, Wednesday 17 April. There have been huge protests against the legislation by conservative French, and reports from GLBT rights groups that the level of homophobic violence has been two to three times higher than normal. That’s been underpinned by a widely-circulated photo of gay Frenchman Wilfred de Bruijn's battered and bruised face. He and his boyfriend were attacked as they walked arm and arm in Paris "Sorry to show you this. It's the face of Homophobia," de Bruijn wrote when he posted the image on his Facebook page. Earlier in the month, a hall used during the day for a festival of lesbian, gay and transgender associations in the gay-friendly Marais district of central Paris was vandalised and plastered with posters for the anti-gay marriage lobby. Since Friday’s vote, further incitement has come from both inside and outside the French Parliament, with several violent threats being made. Frigide Barjot, leader of anti-equality group Manif pour tous, vowed, "Hollande wants blood, and he will get it." Christian Jacob, a deputy from the right-wing UMP party, warned that by speeding up the bill's passage, Hollande "is risking a violent confrontation with the French people." Fellow UMP parliamentarian Hervé Mariton added that the move was "an incitement to civil war." “Such violence is simply unacceptable,” the group SOS Homophobie says. “Every year SOS Homophobie is concerned about an increased number of reports of physical attacks. The overall increase of testimony in 2012 and early 2013 is unprecedented, our association can only be alarmed by the dramatic turn.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 15th April 2013 - 11:49am