Coventry University: 200DEL Module - Equal Marriage Research Proposal

This research proposal examines the legalization of equal marriage in France, exploring the historical context, social impact, and future implications. The study begins with an overview of the issue, a problem statement highlighting the overlooked rights of the LGBTQ+ community, and research aims and objectives. It investigates the circumstances leading to the validation of equal marriage, the place of same-sex relationships, and the societal impact of the legislation. A literature review covers policies, public opinion, and the LGBTQ+ movement in France. The methodology section outlines the research philosophy, approach, data collection, and analysis methods. The research utilizes a positivist philosophy and a deductive approach, collecting data from secondary sources for qualitative analysis. Ethical considerations and a research timeline, including a GANTT chart, are also included. The study aims to understand the factors that led to legalization and to suggest ways to change societal notions about same-sex marriage in France.

Running Head: EQUAL MARRIAGE IN FRANCE
Equal Marriage in France
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................3
1.0 Overview...........................................................................................................................3
1.1Problem Statement..................................................................................................................3
1.2 Research Aim.........................................................................................................................3
1.3 Research Objectives...............................................................................................................3
1.4 Research Questions................................................................................................................4
1.5 Research Rationale................................................................................................................4
1.6 Research Structure.................................................................................................................5
Chapter 2: Review of Literature......................................................................................................5
2.0 Policies on Equal Marriage...............................................................................................5
2.1Public Opinion on Sex Marriage............................................................................................6
2.2 The LGBTQ Movement........................................................................................................7
2.3 The Issue of Same Sex Relations in France...........................................................................7
Chapter 3: Methodology..............................................................................................................8
3.1 Research Overview................................................................................................................8
3.2 Research Philosophy..............................................................................................................8
3.3 Research Approach................................................................................................................9
3.4 Data Collection Process.........................................................................................................9
3.5 Data Analysis Method...........................................................................................................9

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3.6 Ethical Considerations...........................................................................................................9
3.7 Research Timeline...............................................................................................................10
GANTT chart.............................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.0 Overview
In the year 2013, same sex marriage or equal marriage was legalized in France (Paternotte,
and Kollman 2014). 12 countries before France have legalized same sex marriage. The
jurisdiction of this legislation extends to metropolitan France and the overseas department and
territories. The bill was drafted in the National Assembly and the socialist government headed by
Prime Minister Jaen-Marc Avrault initiated the bill and with the support of President Francois
Holland the bill got drafted (Paternotte, and Kollman 2014).
1.1Problem Statement
The rights of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer (LGBTQ) community have
been overlooked for an extensive amount of period. Human rights activist have fought for the
rights of the community and some of them have been successful. Equal marriage is also a
fundamental right; people should be allowed to cohabit with anyone they want to. In the light of
this, France legalized same sex marriage in the year 2013. The reasons behind this legislation
will be examined.
1.2 Research Aim
The intention of this research is examine the situations which led to the validation of the
equal marriage in France.
1.3 Research Objectives
The objectives of this research are:

4EQUAL MARRIAGE IN FRANCE
1. To understand the place of same sex relationship in France.
2. To scrutinize the conditions that led to the legalization of equal marriage in France.
3. To critically evaluate the matter of legalization of equal marriage in France.
4. To recommend the ways in which the society’s notion about equal marriage can be
changed in France.
1.4 Research Questions
The questions that this research will answer are:
1. What is the place of same sex relationship in France?
2. What are the circumstances which led to the legalization of the same sex relationship in
France?
3. What impact did the legalization of same sex marriage had in France?
4. What are the ways in which the society’s notion about same sex marriage can be changed
in France?
1.5 Research Rationale
The research will talk about the reasons equal marriage got legitimized in France. Till the
year 2013 same sex marriage or equal marriage was not legalized in France, there are certain
conditions that led to the validation of equal marriage in France. This research will look into the
factors that led to the legalization of same sex marriage and the effect it had on the people of
France.

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1.6 Research Structure
The first unit of the research will provide an outline of the project. The objectives, aims,
research questions and research rationale of this particular research will be described in this piece
of the research.
The second part of the study will be reviewing the literature. The previous work in the
arena of equal marriage, the journals, the books and articles the will be reviewed.
The third piece of the research will outline the methodology of the research. This
research will be conducted by means of the philosophy of positivism and will done using a
deductive approach. The facts will be collected using secondary sources and will be qualitatively
analyzed.
The fourth segment of the research will be the examination of data that has been
composed from secondary sources. In this case qualitative analysis will be done.
Chapter 2: Review of Literature
2.0 Laws on Equal Marriage
The LGBTQ rights have been ignored for a very long time. Irrespective of the fact that many
countries have legalized same sex marriage; the mentality of the people has still not changed.
Many governments have legalized the same sex marriage, there are communities all around
the world that have celebrated this as a winning for their community. Many communities
have associated the relationship that exists between people of same sex with the outbreak of
HIV. Many people are of the idea that HIV virus gets transmitted to the people in the
LGBTQ community. Despite these negative notions attached to the field of same sex

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relationships, the government of countries like Nigeria have legalized it (Schwartz 2015).
Equal marriage have been legalized in many countries throughout the world, in Europe, the
laws pertaining to same sex relationship have been implemented since the year 1989 and 23
countries have already legalized the marriage and relationship between same sex couples
(Paternotte and Kollman 2013). Despite the legalization of same sex relationships, the public
opinion on the same sex relation.
2.1Public Opinion on Sex Marriage
There are innumerable countries that have already endorsed the cohabitation of same sex
relationship. However, even after the legalization of the equal marriage, the perceptions of
people about them have not completely changed. Many still believe that same sex relationships
are abominations and are against the religion and morality of the people. Few people believe that
same sex relations are contrary to the religion of Christianity (Sepper 2013). Multiple folks are of
the awareness that same sex relations is in clash with the basic tenets of every religion (Walhof
2013). However, these misconceptions that exist about the same sex relations have not stopped
people from supporting the rights of the LGBTQ community. Many have joined the protest
march to shout the people who belong to this community. The movement has gained a new
fervor because of the immense support that they have received from people all over the world.
There are people that are still unaware of the fact there is a community which exists and that
their right have not been taken care of for a very long time. There are people in a community
who are in support of the rights of the LGBTQ people but there are also people who even after
belonging to the same community do not accept the rights of the LGBTQ people (Brewer 2014).
Although the movement has garnered a lot of support over the years but the people of the
LGBTQ community needs the society to unite and fight for them. Without the unanimous

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support of the people, this community cannot have the acceptance of all the people around them.
In the United States of America, there are certain states that have legalized same sex marriage,
but states like Arkansas, Georgia and others that are still left to legalize same sex marriage
(Oppenheimer, Oliveira, and Blumenthal 2014). Starting from 2004, 33 states have legalized
same sex marriage in America (Powell, Quadlin, and Pizmony-Levy 2015). Although slowly, but
the opinions of the people are slowly changing all around the world.
2.2 The LGBTQ Movement
The LGBTQ movement contests for the privileges of the gay, lesbian, bisexual,
transgender and the queer public. The existence of this community can be traced back to the
beginning of society but the rights of these people have been overlooked for a very long time as
the society has always considered them as illegitimate. The crusade roughly started around the
1950s and the 1960s (Stone 2016). Subsequently the fight for their rights have been continuously
going in the society and during the 1970s the sacred privileges of the publics came in clash with
the rights of the LGBTQ community.
2.3 The Matter of Same Sex Relations in France
Equal marriages were legalized in France in the year 2013, this not an easy road, there
were a quite a lot of problems that the French people encountered in order to do so. The bill
sanctioning the same sex marriage was passed after a lot of communal deliberation about the
issue had happened. France became the 14th nation in the world that has permitted the equal
marriages (Chrisafis 2013). New Zealand had legalized same sex relationship a week before
France (Chrisafis 2013). The mayor of Montpellier was the first government official who wed a
homosexual couple (Bracke and Paternotte 2016). However the news in France was not accepted
in the same way by everyone, there were a whole lot of protests after the bill was passed by the

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government. The French right wing and the members of the anti-gay group had protested against
the decision of the government (Baruch 2013). The Roman Catholic Church also differed from
the idea of same sex marriage; they being a conservative bunch, the reaction from them were
expected from them. The primary opposition of the French government, the center right union
had challenged the legality of the law. According to the opposition, the law was illegal and they
would not follow it. For the current Hollande government, the bill meant a huge success and they
are considered by the French society as the major agent of social change. The French
government was efficacious in passing the commandment and the bulk of the populace braced it
regardless of the dissent and the counterattack the expanse of backing that the verdict
acknowledged was more than sufficient to say that for the French folks it was a transfiguring
verdict.
Chapter 3: Methodology
3.1 Research Overview
The research will focus on the conditions that steered to the legalizing of the equal
marriage in France. The research will be done by using the philosophy of positivism. Data will
gather through secondary sources and will qualitatively analyze with a deductive approach.
3.2 Research Philosophy
There are two types of research philosophy interpretivism and positivism (Hughes and
Sharrock 2016). This examination will be using the philosophy of positivism because this will be
done like a scientific research.

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3.3 Research Approach
There are two sorts of research approaches inductive and deductive (Colucci et al. 2014).
For this study the deductive method will be used because this research is based on pre-existing
concepts and will not develop any new theory.
3.4 Data Collection Process
There are two categories of data gathering process, primary and secondary. Secondary
data will be used for this project because this research is based on pre-existing data (Clark 2015).
3.5 Data Analysis Method
There are two varieties of data qualitative and quantitative analysis. In this case data will
be evaluated qualitatively (Silverman 2016). The data that will be composed by using secondary
bases and then qualitatively investigated.
3.6 Ethical Considerations
The ethical concern is that data should be collected from appropriate reliable theoretical
sources; the data congregated cannot be used for other purposes monetary purposes.

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3.7 Research Timeline
GANTT chart
0-2 3-6 7-8 9-10 14th
Research
Activities
Weeks Weeks Weeks Weeks Week
selection of
Research topic

Literature
Review

Data collection
Data analysis
Final business
Research
thesis
Fig 1
GANTT chart
Source: (Created by the Author)

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References
Baruch, M. (2013). Gay Marriage and the Limits of French Liberalism | Dissent Magazine.
[online] Dissent Magazine. Available at: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/gay-marriage-
and-the-limits-of-french-liberalism [Accessed 25 Jun. 2019].
Bracke, S. and Paternotte, D., 2016. Unpacking the sin of gender. Religion and Gender, 6(2),
pp.143-154.
Chrisafis, A. (2013). France celebrates first gay marriage amid tight security. [online] The
Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/29/france-gay-rights
[Accessed 25 Jun. 2019].
Clark, G., 2013. 5 Secondary data. Methods in Human Geography, p.57.
Colucci, S., Giannini, S., Donini, F.M. and Di Sciascio, E., 2014, August. A deductive approach
to the identification and description of clusters in Linked Open Data. In ECAI (pp. 987-988).
Helfer, L.R. and Voeten, E., 2014. International courts as agents of legal change: Evidence from
LGBT rights in Europe. International Organization, 68(1), pp.77-110.
Hughes, J.A. and Sharrock, W.W., 2016. The philosophy of social research. Routledge.
Oppenheimer, D.B., Oliveira, A. and Blumenthal, A., 2014. Religiosity and same-sex marriage
in the United States and Europe. Berkeley J. Int'l L., 32, p.195.
Paternotte, D. and Kollman, K., 2013. Regulating intimate relationships in the European polity:
Same-sex unions and policy convergence. Social politics, 20(4), pp.510-533.