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| Tens of thousands of people demonstrate in Paris against France's gay marriage law that allows homosexual couples to marry and adopt children on March 26, 2013. |
Tens of thousands of people have staged a huge rally in Paris to denounce a controversial French law that legalizes same-sex marriage and allows gay couples to adopt children.
On Sunday, the protesters flocked to central Paris under tight police security to show their fury at the new law -- the key social reform of the unpopular Socialist President Francois Hollande, AFP reported.
The protesters, waving pink and blue flags, crisscrossed Paris in three separate processions and converged on the historic Esplanade des Invalides just across the Champs-Elysees.
Some far-right activists hung a banner on the ruling Socialist Party headquarters urging President Hollande to resign.
Police estimated about 50,000 people participated in the march but organizers put the figure close to one million.
Some 4,500 security forces were deployed for Sunday's demonstration.
Police said they arrested 96 protesters for refusing to disperse or occupying private property when the rally ended. The interior ministry later said the 96 had been detained for possessing suspicious items.
On Saturday, 50 people were arrested during an anti-gay marriage protest on the busy Champs-Elysees avenue.
Hollande signed into law the gay marriage bill on May 18, a day after the Constitutional Council approved the bill, rejecting a challenge by the right-wing opposition.
The approval came despite months of large demonstrations and political wrangling against the legalization.
French churches have also condemned the bill, calling gay marriages “a sham” that would “shake one of the foundations of our society.”
France is now the ninth country in Europe and fourteenth in the world to legalize same-sex wedding. The issue has deeply divided the overwhelmingly Catholic nation.
MN/AS
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