Framing a Moral Protest in a Secular Country. the Civil Society Mobilization Against Homosexual Marriages in France

The introduction of same-sex marriages has recently occupied the political agenda of many countries. The public debate on the question has illustrated the enduring impact of religious values in the political sphere and the greater mobilization of religious civil society groups in contrasting the legalization of homosexual unions. This paper will investigate the socio-political discourse of civil society actors involved in the protests against the introduction of homosexual marriages in France. The activism of groups with a religious background was one the most salient political phenomenon in the French political life in the latest few years. The broadness of the protest was so vast to be described as a fundamental experience for an entire generation. The study of the French mobilization offers the opportunity to come across some intriguing sociological issues. Why the social protests in defence of a family model upheld by the Catholic Church were so strong in one of the most secularized countries in the world? Why Catholic values had a prominent role in a public policy debate in a country where the separation between politics and morality is a paradigm of the political life? Why the traditionally weak French civil society demonstrated such a strong activism?

This paper will investigate the framing process of the discourse of the social actors involved in the French protests against homosexual marriages. Then it will discuss the intellectual and political reasons that contributed to give an ample resonance to their ethical and religious values. Finally it will compare the discourse of the French mobilization with other social protests against the legalization of same-sex unions in other Western countries.