Press release – Act Up-Paris – The 3rd of October 2011
Campaign for the legalization of same-sex marriage in France
Act Up-Paris, organization fighting against AIDS and discrimination is launching a major campaign for the right to marriage for same-sex couples in France. This campaign is participatory and the first of its kind in France.
In Europe: Spain, Portugal, Slovenia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Iceland and Norway have already legalized gay marriage. France, which acclaims itself as ” the land of human rights” has fallen far behind on this issue.
Equal rights are not negotiable. And yet there are concrete differences between the French contract of civil union (PACS) and marriage. This issue concerns all of us : straight, bi, gay, trans, and must figure in the debate for the upcoming 2012 French presidential elections.
Current president Nicolas Sarkozy is opposed to the right of marriage for same-sex couples.
Can we accept that a class of the population do not enjoy the same rights simply because of their sexual orientation? This is the very definition of discrimination.
For this campaign, the advertising agency les Ouvriers du Paradis, which supports Act Up-Paris, is on to four different creative tracks. From October 3 until the end of January 2012 web users will be invited to vote for their preferred visual on the internet platform Sowido.com. In order to vote, they will have to donate one euro or more. The donations will be used to finance the purchase of advertising media space.
>> Download the press kit and some visuals of the campaign : http://ptf.lesouvriers.fr/Act-Up-Paris-Press-kit.zip
>> A single address to vote : http://www.sowido.com/en/mariagehomo
Here are the four creative suggestions for the campaign:
- Choice # 1 : France : the last of the class / starting from examples of various states or regions in the world that have legalized gay marriage, the campaign shows consequences that such a decision has not produced.
- Choice # 2 : Hey straight people ! Don’t panic / the campaign emphasizes the lack of effect that legalizing gay marriage would have in the lives of heterosexuals.
- Choice # 3 : Prohibitions are cool / an urban guerrilla campaign that ironizes about the absurdity of some bans and makes parallels with the ban on gay marriage.
- Choice # 4 : Wedding invitations / an illustration of original invitations for weddings of same-sex people.
For the campaign to be released, the goal is to collect a minimum amount of 30,000 euros. If this amount is not reached, contributors can choose :
- to donate the money to Act Up-Paris
- or be entirely reimbursed without conditions.
Contact: Christophe Rolland – Communication at Act Up-Paris : + 33 1 49 29 44 84 / mobile + 33 6 72 91 40 26