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Wednesday, July 27, it will be 40 years since France decriminalized homosexuality by repealing a law dating from the Vichy regime which condemned “acts against nature”. A look back at the years of repression that preceded this end to discrimination.
It’s not that far back when homosexuality was a crime. Until 1982, the law penalized relations between men, and this, since the Vichy regime. “The homosexuals at the time, we were psychiatric patients, we were unnatural people. In short, we were social scourges”recalls Michael Chomarata specialist in LGBT memory. Public opinion, opposed to homosexuality, was then supported by doctors. Some psychiatrists of the time indeed considered homosexuality to be an illness.
Several thousand men have been arrested because of their sexual orientation. Michael Chomarat was arrested in 1977 in a gay bar. His name had been published in the press, as well as the police officers’ questions asked during police custody, such as: “Did you have your pants down?“ Michael Chomarat will be fined 500 francs, approximately 80 euros. This will be one of the last sentences. In 1982, in the face of street pressure, the law was repealed. Today, the associations seek reparation from the State.
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