La Manif pour Tous in Paris 26th May 2013: round-up

[To remind readers of the inspiration of La Manif pour Tous , an inspiration which may be lost in the coverage of events: Our Message and  Our Ethics]

France 24.com's report is one that best captures an overview of yesterday's events in Paris: France’s anti-gay marriage movement eyes future fights

La Manif pour Tous website gives an account of the first of the vigils referred to in France 24.com's report, which ended with a degree of violence on the part of the CRS towards entirely peaceful people attempting to disperse as instructed by the police. Vigils are now being held regularly in towns throughout France. This report captures exactly what remains the particular mission of La Manif pour Tous: The True Face of Manif pour Tous.

La Croix gives an account of the arrests,which took place after the dispersal of the main Manif pour Tous demonstration, and were linked to groups of the extreme right, and should not be associated with Manif pour Tous itself: Près de 300 interpellations à l'issue de la Manif pour tous ("Nearly 300 arrests at the end of Manif pour Tous"). And here, too: Scènes de violence après la « manif pour tous ».

Yesterday's demonstration prompted the BBC to send a presenter to Paris, so that part of The World this Weekend was presented from Paris. Rather than focus on what was the issue for the vast majority of the ordinary participants in the Manif pour Tous movement - opposition to "la loi Taubirau" legalising marriage and adoption for same sex couples - the coverage tried to present the demonstration as providing a focus for a much wider range of anti-Hollande protests. Huge anti-gay marriage march in Paris

Opposition to gay marriage has become conflated with all sorts of other anti-government grievances coming from the right and the atmosphere in the country is particularly volatile, the BBC's Hugh Schofield says.

Whilst this might be true of some participants, it is not true of La Manif pour Tous as such.

There is a lot more to be said about the phenomenon that is La Manif pour Tous, and the vigil movement that has emerged from it. Yesterday's strapline? It was "resistance" It will be interesting to observe developments ....