French Oral Pres 1 PDF

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My oral presentation notes for semester 1...

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Intro LGBT rights in France are argued to be some of the most advanced in the world, and France has frequently been named one of the most gay-friendly countries in the world. During the Ancien Regime, same-sex sexual activity was a capital crime, resulting in the death penalty, but by 1791, during the French revolution, these laws were repealed. In December 2006, a survey showed that 62% of the French public supported same-sex marriage, and 44% believed same-sex couples should be able to adopt. In 2017, views changed, and 73% of French people were in favour of same-sex marriage. In 2019 it changed again to 79%. Additionally, in 2019, 85% believed gay, lesbian and bisexual people should enjoy all of the same rights as heterosexual people.

An important change in LGBT rights came in 1999, when the governe,nt of Lionel Jospin enacted the PACS, a from of registered civil partnership. It is offered to oth sam-sex and opposite-sex couples, but it was largely introduced to offer some legal status to homosexual couples, since they still could not marry at this time. Nonetheless, in 2021, 94% of PACS were between opposite sex couples, most likely because In France a marriage can be complicated, expensive, and difficult to dissolve but a P.A.C.S. dissolution only requires that you send an official letter to your local court.It was very vocally opposed by people who opposed LGBT rights, mostly on the right-wing. Anti-PACS proponents also staged a series of street protests, but the turnout was low. At its creation, Jacques Chirac described PACS as "not adapted to the needs of families". However, most initial opponents now widely accept the PACS. Pacs allows couples most of the same rights as a marriage, except the right to adoption and artificial insemination. Despite the introduction of the PACS, therte was still considerable political and social debate over same sex marriage in France, which came 14 years later.

In 2011, the National Assembly of France voted againt legalising same sex marriage, but on 18 may 2013, under Francois holland, a bill allowing same-sex marriage was passed – causing France to become the 13th country in the world to legalise it. The bill applied to metrapoltan France as well as most of her overseas territories. Some thought that this was a major step forwards towards equality, but inevitably there were certain people with the opposite view. Some actually tried to stop this law going through – mostly catholics . A movement was created called La Manif Pour Tous, whose slogan was ‘un papa, un maman’. The LMPT now has broadened its claims to the defense of “traditional families”. In June 2013, the French Government issued a bulletin relative aux conséquences du refus illégal de célébrer un mariage de la part d'un officier d'état civil), wherein it declared the illegality of any refusal by a state officer to grant marriage certificates to same-sex couples. In recent polls, a majority of the French people do now

support same sex marriage. When the same-sex marriage law took effect, same-sex couples became legally able to adopt children. The first adoption by a same-sex couple was in October of 2013. Unfortunately, there is still discrimination and discrepancies between homosexual and heterosexual rights concerning families. Only in 2020 was PMA (artificial insemination or IVF) legalised for lesbians and single women. Before this, they had to travel to foreign countries to have the procedure done. This also opens the door to discussions of GPA (surrogacy) – some people say it leads to the commercialisation of bodies, or to a baby market. Many women go abroad to do this too but up until 2015 France refused to recognise children born from surrogates abroad. Though it was changed it is still a strong debate. Another important change for the LGBT community in France was in 2010, when it became the first country in the world to declassify transgenderism as a mental illness. Additionally, since

2017, transgender people have been allowed to change their legal gender without undergoing surgery or receiving any medical diagnosis. In March 2019, Frédérique Vidal, Minister of Higher Education, announced that she wanted all higher education institutions to use transgender people's preferred names, including on student cards, exam forms, etc. In 2021, around 80 percent of people who identify as transgender in France reported having been the target of discrimination and/or violence.

Discrimination is of course not uncommon at all among the rest of the LGBT community, neither in its history, nor today. In fact, Homophobic attacks and insults in France rose by 36% in 2019, according to figures released by the interior ministry. Most astoundingly to me, conversion therapy is still legal in France today, only increasing the stigma that lgbt people are not normal and need to be changed. In 1985, national legislation was enacted to prohibit sexual orientation based discrimination in employment, housing and other public and private provisions of services and goods.[2] In July 2012, the French Parliament added "sexual identity" to the protected grounds of discrimination in French law. On 31 December 2004, the National Assembly approved an amendment to existing anti-discrimination legislation, making homophobic, sexist, racist, xenophobic etc. comments illegal.

Compare to other French speaking places In much of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, including former colonies of France, same-sex sexual activity is not considered a criminal offense. However, in most of the member states, including those states in which same-sex sexual activity is not criminalized, social taboos against it remain. acceptance of homosexuality and same-sex relationships tends to be lower than in metropolitan France, as residents are in general more religious, and religion plays a bigger role in public life. In some of these territories, homosexuality is occasionally perceived as "foreign" and "practiced only by the white population". A 2014 study showed that about 20% of Overseas residents saw homosexuality as a sexuality like any other, compared to 77% in metropolitan France. Réunion is known for being welcoming to LGBT people and has been described as a "gay-friendly haven in Africa". By July 2015, 93 same-sex couples had married on the island. LGBT people in New Caledonia are widely accepted, and enjoy a large nightlife and dating scene. Mayotte, on the other hand, is overwhelmingly Muslim and possesses a strong Arab-Bantu culture. This heavily influences public perception of the LGBT community, as there have been frequent reports of family rejections, harassment and discrimination on the island. Homosexuality is typically a taboo topic among the Mahorais, and many LGBT people have chosen to move to neighbouring Réunion or to metropolitan France. In Mayotte, the first same-sex wedding was performed in September 2013 in Mamoudzou, the largest city in the department.[62] This marked the first time in history that a legally recognized same-sex marriage occurred in a jurisdiction where a majority of the population follows the religion of Islam. Overall, relatively few same-sex marriages have been performed in French overseas departments and territories compared with the number of those performed in metropolitan France. In many African member states, all same-sex activity is a crime, such as morocco, Egypt, Senegal and Cameroon.

In April 2009, the French National Assembly voted to approve the extension of PACS to two French overseas collectivities: New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna. Thus, couples in New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna are able to enter a PACS in the same way as couples in Metropolitan France. Given their autonomous status, these collectivities did not automatically begin performing PACS when they were introduced in Metropolitan France in 1999.[11] French Polynesia is the only collectivity where PACS cannot be performed...