In a petition published on Monday July 11 on the Têtu media, around a hundred elected officials and personalities from the associative world are asking for the withdrawal of three ministers with the past “Manif pour tous”. In their line of sight? Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories, Caroline Cayeux, Minister Delegate for Territorial Cohesion and Christophe Béchu, Minister of Ecology and Energy Transition.
A past “Demonstration for all”
What do these members of the government have in common? Membership more or less displayed at the Manif pour tous in 2012, then in the midst of a debate on the opening of marriage and adoption to same-sex couples.
Gérald Darmanin, had indicated in 2013: “If I am mayor of Tourcoing, I will not personally celebrate marriages between two men and two women”. As for the new Minister of Ecology, Christophe Béchu, it is his tribune at Valeurs Actuelles entitled “The denaturation of marriage; the weakened Republic” denounced by the hundred signatories. Another feat of arms reproached to the mayor of Angers? “In 2016, he took the decision to withdraw posters from an HIV prevention campaign, on the grounds that they presented couples of men. »
The petition criticizes the government for its inaction: “How can we believe that this government will respect the principle of equality between all and all, will engage in the fight against discrimination and will guarantee gender freedom when the government includes three notorious LGBTQIAphobes? »
A backpedal from Minister Caroline Cayeux
“Marriage for all and the right to adoption is not simply a plan that goes against nature but it is more serious”: between these quotation marks, the words of the current Minister Delegate for Territorial Cohesion, Caroline Cayeux. Then a senator in 2012, she described marriage for all as a “whim” and “a disrespectful opening of rights to nature and insane”.
Then invited to Public Senate on Tuesday July 12, the former senator reiterates. “I obviously stand by my words,” she said. Additional precision, she has many friends “among all these people. »
Wave of indignation. The minister corrected the situation during the day and tried to justify herself: “Since this morning, I have read and heard your messages. My words hurt many of you. I deeply regret them, they were naturally inappropriate. Equal rights must always be a priority in our action. Can we read on his Twitter page.
As a reminder, the last annual assessment of the situation of the rights of LGBTI people in France, carried out by the European branch of the International Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex People (ILGA Europe) in 2019, gives an overall score by 56%, ranking the country 13th among the 49 countries assessed on the continent.