Elisabeth Borne’s proposals to fight homophobia “going in the right direction”estimates Hussein Bourgi, senator of Hérault, member of the national office of the PS and regional councilor of Occitanie, on franceinfo Thursday August 4.
>>”We lived hidden like rats”: 40 years after the decriminalization of homosexuality, a former convict tells
On the occasion of 40 years of the decriminalization of homosexuality, the Prime Minister announced the creation of a fund of three million euros to help LGBT+ centers in France and the appointment “by the end of the year” of an ambassador for LGBT+ rights.
franceinfo: What do you think of Elisabeth Borne’s proposals?
Hussein Bourgi: I don’t know if they will be enough, a priori, I don’t think so, but it doesn’t matter, it’s one more step. I want to see the glass half full more than the glass half empty. Regarding the upcoming appointment of an ambassador for LGBT+ rights who is intended to speak with other countries, we are inspired by what we have been doing in other European countries, in northern Europe in particular for several years. now.
“It is very useful to have this dialogue with other countries, especially in Africa where the situation of LGBT+ people is particularly worrying with state persecution and police and judicial repression.”
Hussein Bourgiat franceinfo
To have someone who does monitoring work, who can facilitate the granting of refugee permits or who allows us to do this mediation work with the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (Ofpra) and with the Ministry of ‘Interior is particularly welcome.
Elisabeth Borne also proposes to create 10 new LGBT + reception centers so that there are at least two in each region of France and at least one in each overseas region. Will the announced fund be enough to finance these centres?
I understand the three million euros allocated, but I think it’s less a question of funding than of human resources. To open a structure, you need volunteers and people who have the skills to welcome, listen, guide and help young and old. It can’t be improvised. This fund could help, here and there, initiatives to structure themselves and rent premises. Above all, we need this associative volunteering: in France, whether for the rights of women or homosexuals, it is often around the volunteering of committed people that the fights have been able to structure themselves.
Elisabeth Borne also said she was ready to “look at” your bill for “reparation” for people convicted of homosexuality between 1942 and 1982. Is this going in the right direction?
It gives me hope and I think that France is a country that knows how to look at its past. The history of any country is made up of light parts of which we must take legitimate pride, but also dark parts that we must look at with great courage. [Il s’agit de] recognize that there were deportations for reasons of homosexuality from France to concentration camps during the Second World War, that the rogue legislation adopted by the government of Marshal Pétain allowed arrests, humiliations, denunciations in public, to employers, to family, to neighbours, but also the sentencing of fines and prison sentences for around 10,000 people in France because of their homosexuality. [Le but est], by virtue of this recognition, to pay compensation to these people which would be purely symbolic. The purpose of this bill is above all to address these 10,000 people who have been sentenced. Unfortunately, there are only a few thousand people still alive who are very old, who are in their 80s, 90s.