In 2012-13, the French government’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage inspired mass protests in several cities for more than a year. This was surprising, as several other West-European states...Show moreIn 2012-13, the French government’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage inspired mass protests in several cities for more than a year. This was surprising, as several other West-European states had previously introduced similar bills without much controversy. These countries all had shown a clear pattern of rapidly declining prejudice against sexual minorities during the last decades. Some scholars have suggested, however, that in France this newly found acceptance of LGB individuals has not generalized to same-sex parenting, as the model of the heterosexual family remains one of the essential components of the dominant French national ideology and its quest for “abstract universalism”. In this thesis, I compared attitudes towards homosexuality and gay parenting in France and Europe. Analyzing datasets from the European Social Survey, I found evidence that French attitudes towards homosexuality are largely identical to those of other Western Europeans. However, French views on gay parenting turned out to be much more polarized than in other countries where gay marriage had been legalized. This may partly explain why such large protests against gay marriage had arisen in France in 2012-13, but not elsewhere in Europe where similar policies have been enacted.Show less