France’s Marine Le Pen pledges to abolish same-sex marriage

Marine Le Pen is planning to abolish same-sex marriage if she wins the French election.

The French presidential hopeful made the pledge as part of her 144-page Projet Présidentiels plan.

Point 87 on her list states she wants to improve civil unions to ‘replace the provisions of the Taubira law’, which made same-sex marriage legal.

The law would not be retroactive.

Le Pen’s change would also ban surrogacy (GPA) and limit medically assisted procreation (AMP) to only be available for those with fertility problems.

The changes are, ironically, included under the headline ‘Allow everyone to find his place’.

In 2013, President François Hollande signed the law allowing same-sex marriage in France.

Prior to the change, same-sex couples could only enter civil unions, called civil solidarity pacts (pacte civil de solidarité, PACS).

As PACS was open to all couples, no matter if gay or straight, it was kept on even after marriage equality was established.

Le Pen now wants to revert same-sex marriage back to an ‘improved’ version of PACS.

It is unclear what would happen to adoption rights.

Le Pen in the lead

Le Pen is currently leading the polls for the 23 April election.

The vote is split into two phases,  and she is tapped as the favorite to win the first vote.

The two top candidates will then face-off in a second run-off on 7 May.

Despite her party’s staunch social conservatism, Le Pen has made an effort to distance herself from more extreme views often associated with the Front National.

In March 2016, Le Pen distanced herself from anti-marriage equality comments by her niece Marion Maréchal Le Pen.

She had said gay marriage in France had opened the door ‘for the state to recognise polygamous marriages, practised unofficially by some African immigrants’, according to the Telegraph.

The party leader took exceptions to her niece’s claims and said France was ‘very, very far from recognizing polygamy’.

Since 2015, the number of LGBTI people voting for the party has been on the rise.

Polls now suggest Le Pen could actually be winning the ‘gay vote’.

According to the Guardian, 32% of married gay couples support Le Pen, compared to 19% in 2012.

It has been suggested the Front National’s efforts to depict Islam and the current refugee surge as a threat to LGBTI rights could be a reason for that increase.

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