The Republic brought to the Test of Sexual Democracy: The Contention over Same-sex Marriage Recognition in France

In 2012, from the far-right to the radical left, all the candidates running for the French presidential election had unanimously denounced the gender pay gap and gender-based violence, suggesting the end of the political cleavage over the implementation of the constitutional principle of gender equality. Yet, gender rights were soon reinvested as a matter of political contention, when same-sex marriage was legalized in May, 2013 and the school reform embracing the objective of gender equality was initiated in June, 2013. Both reforms, in line with the program of the governing left-wing coalition, have faced fierce opposition, materialized by massive demonstrations, but also the widespread denunciation of the so-called “gender theory”, allegedly advocated by the government to undermine an heteronormative framing of sexual and family rights. By delegitimizing gender studies and gender policies as a threat to sexual differentiation, the opponents to this “unnatural ideology” framed as ideologically-driven social engineering have joined the long-established club of those afraid by “a too invasive democracy” (Fraisse, 2010). The governmental step back in bringing gender-equality at school through awareness-raising, and mainstreaming gender (genre) as a concept relevant to policy making, underline that the Law will be a weapon (Israël, 2009) to achieve gender equality only if it is justified as a fight against sexism and heteronormativity. In order to test this hypothesis, we cross-referenced the analysis of public discourse, in particular parliamentary debates, with institutional and policy frame analysis. The purpose of this presentation is so to shed light on the reasons that keep equality out of reach in the French Republic, over two centuries after the Great Revolution (Lépinard, 2007; Rosanvallon, 2011/2013). We will analyze how the French Republic is put to the test of gender equality and sexual democracy.