Excerpts from:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5114002/site/newsweek/‘The Right to Choose’
Mayor Noël Mamere explains why he will perform France’s first gay marriage ceremony—and why he has received threats and a parcel of excrement in the mail
Is the government’s stand on gay marriage behind the times? The Right and part of the Left are greatly out of sync with French society. The vast majority of French people are far more advanced than their representatives, more open-minded, less fearful. And young people most of all because they have an evolved view of marriage, not one formed in the 19th and 20th century. To them, marriage has its place in life, but [they don’t] compare with politicians and others who put marriage in the context of a religious sacrament. And if it is a solemn engagement, why not have that engagement between two people of the same sex?
What is your stand on gay adoption?I am for it. Yes, surveys show most people are against it, but we must get over this hypocrisy. Since 1966, a single person can adopt a child, so a single gay person can adopt as long as they hide the fact that they are gay. More than 100,000 children are already growing up in gay families in France, either through adoption, artificial insemination or other. We will see the same debates as we did with the civil unions, and the same divide and arguments, and we will end up with the same result; most people supporting it. In four or five years this will all seem quite banal.
Did Gavin Newsom, the San Francisco mayor who allowed gay marriages, inspire you?I watched, but we don’t have to look to the other side of the Atlantic for inspiration. I looked at Belgium, Holland, Denmark, where gay marriage already exists, and soon even the very Catholic Spain under [Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez] Zapatero. But I have a lot of respect for the mayor of San Francisco and I would like to twin Bègles with San Francisco. Bègles may be too small, just 23,000 people, but why not?
Are you expecting a good party [at Saturday’s ceremony]?I hope so, but I don’t want this to turn into the Gay Pride parade. I think it will be a point of gay pride, but it is a marriage between these two people, and it is important to them as individuals. I will also be proud to contribute to this conquest of legal equality.