That's SOO gay!

Yes, I know I did a post about saying "that's so gay on Saturday. I'm  using that title to make a point.

Homoerotic anti-”gay marriage” protesters disrupt French Open finals

An anti-gay coalition in France of the religious right, Catholic church and opposition party UMP disrupted the finals of the French Open tennis tournament today at Roland Garros. Ostensible, they were protesting France’s recent legalization of gay marriage, but now that gay marriage is legal in France, the protests are rather moot.

A bunch of half-naked buff young guys, wearing carnival masks, streaked on the tennis court, and held signs, while holding flares.  You can only see one in the video below.  Buzzfeed has photos of the other protesters, and an excellent demonstration of the homoeroticism of France’s Catholic church/UMP.

The French religious right has been using this leit-motif of buff half-naked men in Mardi Gras masks, to protest gay marriage, for a while now.  And it’s more than a bit odd.  Do you remember France’s unitard bird-man “flash mob” for traditional marriage from  a few months ago?  Yeah, nothing gay about that:

Here are more gayer-than-gayer religious right protesters via the Advocate magazine.

Tight pants, muscled physique.  It’s like all the homo and none of the phobe.

You see, France legalized gay marriage a few weeks ago, and the French right has been beside itself over its defeat and the gays’ victory.  Much like the American Republican party’s Frankenstein coalition with the Catholic church, the evangelicals, and the Mormons, the French right-wing UMP party also hitched its wagon to the anti-gay prejudice of France’s minuscule religious right, mostly led by the Catholic church, and allied with America’s anti-gay marriage right, led by NOM.

As it became increasingly clear that the French parliament was going to pass marriage equality, France’s  anti-gay right became more and more violent.

First, religious right protesters violently attacked the French police, and then used their own pre-school age children as human shields against tear gas, which was ironic in a protest supposedly devoted to saving the children.

Then came the fascist-salute crowd attacking the police.

Then came an attack on Paris’ main LGBT center.

Then the threats to kill gays, and hate crimes against French gays.

Then, powder-laced letters were sent to the head of the parliament.

All the while, France’s religious right leader, and the Catholic church’s top leader in France, both seemed to make excuses for the violence.

Then skinheads murder a young French poli-sci student who had just participated in pro-gay rallies in Paris, and the religious right blames gay marriage supporters for the 18 year old’s death – after all, the religious right says, this wold have never happened had the government not legalized gay marriage.

The French Open is rather sacrosanct in France.  And attacking it, during the finals, is not exactly the wisest move if you’re interested in winning French public opinion.  The problem is, it’s not clear what the right-wing coalition of the Catholic church and France’s UMP want, other than, seemingly, to foment violence, hatred and intolerance in what was once thought of as one of Europe’s more tolerant countries, at least sexually.