French Senator Esther Benbassa’s Daily Quest For Equality

Senator Benbassa is coming to Ankara on May 18 to speak on the recent Marriage Equality Bill and political debates.

 

«My name is Esther Benbassa. It is true though, my name is hard to pronounce. Still, one always ends up remembering it. My name is my real homeland, of those virtual homelands that I like the most, free from the slightest hint of any kind of chauvinism […]»

 

This is the way Esther Benbassa has chosen to introduce herself on her personal website*. A way that won’t make sense to the ones motioned by nationalist ideologies. A way that advocates for multiculturalism and recognition.

 

Multicultural she is, indeed. Born in Istanbul, she grew up in a Judeo-Spanish family whose ancestors were compelled to leave Spain in 1492. She migrated to Israel when she was a teen, before changing country again to study in Paris. Her academic peregrinations led her to graduate from Tel Aviv University, University of Paris III, University of Paris VIII, to finish with a fourth diploma from the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilization. Scholar of Jewish History, she is also a specialist of Comparative History of Minorities.

 

But that is only the tip of the iceberg. Her numerous publications and active grassroots action tell a lot about her engagement in favor of intercultural dialogue, about her fight against racism and discrimination. But to provide a detailed description of her professional background could take hours! So let’s stick to Esther Benbassa recent path... in French politics!

 

Multicultural, multiprofessional, Esther Benbassa is not only a professor, researcher, historian, intellectual. She is also a politician. Not from those who have entered in politics for the sake of power and prestige. She became a senator in 2011, representative of Green Party (EEVL), motioned by this quest for tolerance, equality and social progress.

 

She has originated the abrogation of prohibition of passive soliciting, leading to a better – if still limited – protection of sex workers in France. She most recently engaged in the struggle for the law on «Marriage for All». In other words – along with other senators, deputees and ministers – she has advocated for the legal recognition of same-sex couples’ union.

 

In August 2012, Esther Benbassa (on behalf of the EEVL, and after joint discussions with LGBT activists) had made a first attempt to shake the traditional family model by submitting a bill on same sex marriage, procreation and adoption. In vain… This bold step wasn’t even reported by mainstream media organs, and so the tricky road to legalise same-sex union officially started on November 7, with Christiane Taubira’s project (itself inspired by Benbassa’s initial proposal).

 

Because the making of French legislation requires so, the Bill had been successively examined by the Parliament, by the Senate and again by the Parliament, before being adopted – eventually – on April 23^rd. Five months of a bitter struggle.

 

A struggle made of endless debates, hours of speeches, virulent arguments, fuelling mass protests, threats and reprisals. Because she defended equality, Esther Benbassa experienced the expression of hatred – as many of her counterparts – being personally attacked by right wing senators, enduring anonymous threats on the phone and by mail, later finding her car vandalized.

 

In her chronicles to the Huffington Post, she comments the examination process of the Bill in the Senate, day by day. She gives the reader an opportunity to witness history being drawn up. She describes the debates, reports the ugliest speeches, questions the nonsense.

Just as if asking us, she writes: «’A child needs a mom and a dad’, did I really get that right?!»,  «Are my ears buzzing?», «Have some of them escaped the heritage of the Enlightenment?» she wonders.

 

Esther Benbassa was part of the slight majority which carried the Bill to the very end, to its enactment, but she also witnessed the decadence of a country once called the Homeland of Human Rights. Homeland... A place where individuals have recently chosen to assault the LGBT community and threaten to death elected representatives, in the name of traditions.

 

Fortunately, that much violence and hatred has not proven sufficient to maintain inequality between gay-lesbian and heterosexual couples. Both the Senate and the Parliament agreed on the rightful existence of a legal union blind to sexual orientation. One more step away from discrimination which has also shown the fragility of tolerance and social peace.