海角大神

The kiss last weekend on national television between Michael Sam, the first openly gay draftee in the history of football, and his boyfriend set off another cultural war that was uniquely American in its divisiveness and vitriol.

But across the Atlantic, at roughly the same time, a bearded drag queen named Conchita Wurst captured the top prize at the annual Eurovision competition in Copenhagen.

Many media outlets hailed a new dawn of tolerance. But many viewers 鈥� like their American counterparts 鈥� raged at the 鈥渧ulgar鈥� act and a 鈥渨orld gone mad,鈥� and suspected the event was hijacked by 鈥渁ctivists promoting 鈥榙iversity,鈥� 鈥� as some of the Internet commentators at the website of the BBC, which airs the contest in Britain, put it.

Indeed, many Americans understand Europe as a stronghold of social liberalism where gender equality, gay marriage rights, living together outside of marriage, and abortion advocacy reign, and where even children can request euthanasia, at least in the Netherlands and Belgium.

But there are many signs that the issues that have sparked the culture wars in the US are just as unsettling in Europe. And it鈥檚 not just in conservative countries like Poland or Ireland, where the Catholic Church still has a strong grip. In highly secular France, young activists are fighting against everything from gay marriage to gender theory, and in Spain, lawmakers are considering one of the toughest abortion laws in the European Union.

Abortion battles in Spain

鈥淲e thought these issues were more than closed,鈥� says May Serrano, a Spanish feminist who runs the group 鈥淚mperfect Women鈥� from her plant-filled balcony that looks onto the verdant hills around the city of Bilbao in northern Spain.

It was a case in this industrial city that spurred feminist groups to seek an abortion law in post-Franco Spain, after the 鈥�11 of Bilbao" 鈥� 10 women and one man 鈥� faced lengthy prison sentences for abortion.

So when Ms. Serrano woke up to hear on the radio that the conservative prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, with the backing of the Catholic Church, was seeking to roll back access to abortion, she thought it was a 鈥渟ick joke,鈥� she says. In 2010, women and girls gained expanded rights, allowing the termination of pregnancy on demand through 14 weeks.

The new law would make abortion illegal unless a woman鈥檚 physical or mental health is endangered, or if the pregnancy is the result of sexual violence. Two doctors would need to verify that those criteria are met. It does not have broad support in the country but the government has promised to push forward with it.

In February, Ms. Serrano led a group of 50 women to the local property registry in Bilbao 鈥� one of several protests staged across the country 鈥� to 鈥渞egister鈥� their bodies with local authorities in a bid to convey their view that the government is laying claim to their bodies with the proposed law.

They filled out paperwork and the description boxes 鈥� 鈥渢wo legs and two arms, one head, and two scars on my knees,鈥� read one 鈥� confusing bureaucrats who had to confer with their higher-ups. Their requests were taken and stamped 鈥� some female bureaucrats joined the movement 鈥撀犅燽ut ultimately rejected. Their point was made though, across national and international media.

French fights over gay marriage

In France, street protests have come from the other side of the cultural divide. A potent social movement came to life last year聽as the Socialist government of President Fran莽ois Hollande moved to legalize gay marriage. While the group, spearheaded by Manif Pour Tous ("march for all"), was not able to stop the law from getting signed, it has become a political force that is pushing for family values within the mainstream agenda in the country.

Madeleine Bazin de Jessey, a university student studying literature, is one of the activists fighting a law she said claimed to be one of equality for all but didn鈥檛 take into account equality for children. She co-founded a political party called Common Sense, which works within the mainstream right to push for traditional family values, protesting everything from in vitro fertilization for same-sex couples to gender theory in classrooms.

In January, parents protested gender equality laws they said amounted to inappropriate gender theory by keeping students out of school for a day, leading聽then Interior Minister Manuel Valls, now prime minister, to warn: 鈥淲e are witnessing the rise of a French tea party.鈥�

Just this week, a school in Nantes, in western France, organized an equality event that invited boys to wear skirts to school. In response, Frigide Barjot, the former head of Manif Pour Tous, tweeted 鈥淎nd will the girls be wearing beards?鈥� in apparent reference to Conchita Wurst鈥檚 appearance at Eurovision.

Ms. Bazin de Jessey says she believes there has been an awakening in society that turns back the 鈥減rogress鈥� that began with famed student protests here in 1968. 鈥淭here is a sense we went too far,鈥� she says. 鈥淧rogress,鈥� she says, 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 mean happiness."

Shifting tides

There have been flashpoints across Europe, from abortion and gay marriage debates in Ireland to civil unions for same-sex marriage in Poland. Russia has been the most overtly anti-gay, and vocal in its protest of the Eurovision contest this year.聽

Some of it has seemed contradictory. In Spain the abortion debate is playing out even as other聽social hot-button issues, like gay marriage, have widespread support. Gillian Kane, a senior policy adviser at Ipas, an international reproductive-rights group, says gay marriage and abortion are lumped together by the opposition as part of a liberal movement to undermine family values, she says.

But while abortion has remained stubbornly contentious, gay marriage has received steadily more backing, both in the US and Europe. She believes it鈥檚 because it鈥檚 a gender issue, and because gay marriage, even if among two men or two women, still 鈥渁ppeals to family values.鈥�

Even in Britain, where there is less of a conservative religious constituency than in the US or some nations of Europe, the passage of gay marriage laws last year led some to ponder the arrival of American culture wars. So far there鈥檚 been nothing like the protests in France or the US, but that doesn鈥檛 mean conversation is closed.

鈥淭here are certainly very deep feelings over such issues in Britain鈥� says Nick Spencer, research director of Theos, a British think tank on religion and society.聽"There isn鈥檛 this聽liberal consensus as some Americans perceive there to be.鈥�