Men are stripping to the waist, scribbling slogans on their body, holding hands and demonstrating across France against gay marriage.

Sometimes masked, sometimes gagged but almost always half-naked, they are Les Hommen – an action group against marriage equality.

It appears to be a parody of Femen, the topless feminist protestors who rallied against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s gay rights record on his recent visit to Amersterdam.

The slogans on their bodies, written in French and English, declare ‘No gay marriage’ ‘Save kids’ and ‘Demo [democracy] dead’.

Their page on Facebook declares they stand for ‘women and children first’.

And they accuse French President FranÃ§ois Hollande of ‘gassing’ children. French riot police have used tear gas to stem the violence at some anti-gay marriage protests and the demonstrators have been accused of using their children as a ‘human shield’ against the authorities.

They declare (translated from French): ‘FranÃ§ois Hollande must leave his deafening silence. His contempt for the people screaming is a denial of democracy. Gassing children on 24 March is a fault that should never happen again. We will not yield.’

They are believed to have protested in Toulouse, Nice, Paris, Versailles and elsewhere. But they are still described as a micro group in the French media.

One French gay activist laughingly told GSN: ‘For some people the best way to protest is to show their own bodies because they aren’t very good looking. But that’s just being bitchy and we should be better than that.’

Marriage equality has been approved by both houses of the French parliament and will almost certainly be law by the summer.

UPDATE: France’s National Assembly has voted in favor of gay marriage and same-sex couples adopting children. Click here to read more.

Watch Les Hommen in action here: