“We must broaden the scope of repair”

BAlthough fundamental, the bill “providing compensation for people convicted of homosexuality between 1942 and 1982”, tabled in the Senate by Hussein Bourgi and dozens of his colleagues, remains timid.

Admittedly, it paves the way for the State to recognize its own persecution of sexual minorities. It raises vital questions: how to define the homophobic nature of the action of public authorities? Where does homophobia begin and where does it end? How far will France push self-criticism in rereading its history?

If it is obvious to recognize homophobia in the judicial conviction of homosexual people because of their sexuality, the fact remains that state homophobia is not confined to this. It encompasses all the processes by which state policies have contributed (and contribute) to supporting the domination and inferiorization of sexual minorities.

Incomplete proposal

Homophobia can even be passive: inaction is a form of action. To overcome this problem, it would be good to admit that the homophobia practiced by the State has taken several forms: non-recognition of couples, of LGBTQI + parenthood and transgender people, failure to take LGBTQI + issues into account in education, and the absence of a reception policy targeting LGBTQI + refugees. One could add to this the lack of reaction in the event of an epidemic affecting sexual minorities in particular (AIDS, etc. monkey pox).

However, even when apprehending repression in a strict sense, the senatorial proposal seems limited. In particular, it proves to be lacunar in its field of application: it retains a very narrow chronology and limited penal incriminations.

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It relates to two articles of the penal code. The first, introduced by Vichy in 1942 and maintained at the Liberation in 1945, had the effect of creating a higher age of consent for homosexual relations: where heterosexuals were presumed to consent from the age of 15 (13 years before 1945) , homosexuals were homosexual from the age of 21 (18 after 1974). Appeared in 1960, the second article aggravated the public outrage to decency if it consisted of a homosexual relationship. It is mainly male homosexuality that has been targeted by the application of these two articles, and it is rather men from the popular urban classes who have been condemned.

Humiliation and harassment

However, the repression of homosexuality existed well before the period 1942-1982. On the one hand, from the nineteenth^e century, the police took charge of subjudicial persecutions. The latter does not in fact need criminal incrimination to act. It squares and controls homosexual lives and places: by raids on bars, clubs, bathing establishments and places of cruising, by detentions at the post, by filings, without there being systematically any criminal action. Very early on, moreover, the police complained of being hampered by the absence of criminal incrimination. Former head of security, Louis Canler regretted in 1862 ” a lack “ of the penal code: “Barring flagrante delicto and barring the application, often difficult, of simple police regulations, what should be done? » Between 1860 and 1870, the Parisian police would still have arrested 6,342 “pederasts”. The situation continued until 1982: homosexuals and police recounted a daily life made up of mockery, humiliation, checks and harassment. However, this repression is for the moment ignored by the bill.

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