In mid-November, when Inna Shevchenko, 22, Femen's leader in France, and Oksana Shachko, 25, a veteran Femen activist, heard that the militant Catholic organization Institut Civitas was planning to protest against a proposed law that would legalize same-sex marriage in the country, they decided to stage an in situ counter-demonstration in the controversial, deliberately provocative style for which their group has won no small measure of notoriety.
Along with eight French members of Femen, they donned nuns’ habits, painted their bodies with slogans (FUCK CHURCH, GAY IS OK, FUCK RELIGION), equipped themselves with aerosol canisters of white powder marked Jesus Sperm, and set out for the Civitas rally.
Once there, they stripped down to their black panties and black and white head veils, and began marching, breasts bare, brandishing their “sperm,” and chanting, in an ever more strident crescendo, “In Gay We Trust! In Gay We Trust!” A minute later, they halted and sprayed their “ejaculate” into the startled, predictably hostile crowd of Catholic fundamentalists.
