French Subway Shop Shuts Down After Homophobic Valentine’s Day Offer

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Feb 19, 2013 at 10:50 am

A Subway sandwich shop in Angers, France shut down on Sunday after it outraged customers with a heterosexuals-only Valentine’s Day deal.

As the French legislature considers the merits of passing same-sex marriage equality, the owner of a local Subway franchise put his two cents into the debate by giving a 14 euro special to “H/F” — male and female — couples. The deal sparked so much anger the the shop actually closed its doors:

Also on the poster was an asterisk that read: “Discrimination (?) No, the marriage for all law has advanced, but has yet to be ratified by the Senate. Until then, I’ll use my freedom of expression.”[...]

A slew of angry customers responded to the ad on both Facebook and Twitter, and the official Twitter account of Subway in France responded on Friday saying: “We have been made aware of this poster and it has been immediately removed from the Subway in Angers.”

In an effort to calm the outrage, the company later tweeted: “We are committed to diversity/integration, we are working with the owner of the restaurant to reinforce our values/politics.”

France, as a nation, has turned its focus intensely toward marriage equality since French President François Hollande announced that it would be a major initiative of his administration. And the people of France clearly seem to side with Hollande over the Subway restaurateur; a recent poll showed that 63 percent of French people supported changing the law.

()

Economy

French President Rails Against ‘Austerity Without End’

By Pat Garofalo on Feb 19, 2013 at 9:25 am

French President Francois Hollande

The Eurozone has seen economic growth sputter and joblessness spike in the wake of severe austerity measures adopted over the last several years. But while most of the EU (along with Great Britain) is doubling down on austerity, French President Francois Hollande is calling for the opposite. During a trip to Athens (poster child of Europe’s economic catastrophe), Hollande inveighed against “austerity without end“:

François Hollande will make his first visit as French president to Greece on Tuesday carrying the same anti-austerity message to Athens that won him election to the Élysée Palace last May.

As he put it in a pre-visit interview with the Athens newspaper Ta Nea, it was essential for Europe to support growth in Greece, reeling from years of financial crisis and recession. “I reject a Europe that condemns countries to austerity without end,” he declared.

The complicating factor, as the Financial Times Hugh Carnegy noted, is that France is bound by the same budget targets as the rest of the EU, so it may have to engage in more austerity. But France’s Finance Minister is making some noise about breaking with France’s earlier budget targets. “I don’t think our credibility will be damaged if something exceptional intervenes,” finance minister Pierre Moscovici said yesterday. “If we have a deeper recession, we’ll have an even tougher time hitting our targets. We must not add austerity to the risk of recession.”

As this chart shows, European austerity has gone hand in hand with increasing unemployment (even as EU debt loads have increased):

Meanwhile, here in the U.S., Republicans are embracing austerity of their own, cheerleading huge looming, budget cuts.

()

NEWS FLASH

French Cabinet Advances Same-Sex Marriage Legislation | Despite concerns that opposition would delay the debate, the French Cabinet (the administration of President François Hollande) has advanced a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. Hollande had promised the legislation when he took office in May; he and his Socialist Party control majorities in both houses of Parliament, ensuring little can obstruct the bill from passing. Should it pass next year, France will become the 12th country to recognize the freedom to marry.

LGBT

French President Calls For Global LGBT Freedom From Persecution

By Zack Ford on Sep 26, 2012 at 9:58 am

French President François Hollande made an impassioned speech to the United Nations General Assembly yesterday calling for countries across the globe to end the criminalization of homosexuality. Echoing a commitment made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last year, Hollande said that France will work to ensure the citizens of all countries live free of persecution:

HOLLANDE: France will continue to engage in all these struggles: for the abolition of the death penalty, for women’s rights to equality and dignity, for the universal decriminalization of homosexuality, which should not be recognised as a crime but, on the contrary, recognized as a [sexual] orientation.

All members countries have the obligation to guarantee the security of their citizens, and if one nation adheres to this obligation, it is then imperative that we, the United Nations, facilitate the necessary means to make that guarantee. These are the issues that France will lead and defend in the United Nations. I say this with seriousness. When there is paralysis… and inaction, then injustice and intolerance can find their place.

Watch a clip of some of Hollande’s remarks: