French National Assembly Rejects Marriage Equality 293-222

Bizarre news from France where the National Assembly has rejected a bill to enact marriage equality by a vote of 293-222. President Nicholas Sarkozy's party, the UMP which controls the body, opposed the measure proposed by the Socialists.

From Agence France Press:

"We are against homophobia but we do not want to alter the image and function of marriage in the collective subconscious," said UMP lawmaker Michel Diefenbacher.

Opposition Socialist party lawmaker Patrick Bloche had called the bill a measure to end a form of discrimination and "pass to a new stage in equality of rights."

Several of France's fellow European Union member states, including Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands, have legalised homosexual marriage.

Wow. "The collective subconscious" image and function of marriage is what heterosexual supremacists are using to defend their discriminatory position. Doesn't that sound eerily like a defense of segregation? After all, that was about the collective subconscious of what it means to be "white" (and "American") in this country.