The first state in the world to decriminalize the crime of sodomy in 1791, France was for a long time a liberal country in terms of manners. A tolerance that Marshal Pétain put an end to in 1942 with the signing of a decree restoring “the crime of homosexuality”. While heterosexual sexual relations are permitted from the age of 15, this Article 334 of the Penal Code punishes therelations between two people of the same sex under the age of 21. The legislation, preserved at the Liberation, is durciated in the early 1960s, before being repealed in 1982. Forty yearsmen whose sexuality is considered as “against nature” were thus ostracized, treated like criminals and condemned to live their relationships clandestinely.
Ariane Chemin and Emmanuel Hamon, the authors and directors of Homosexuality: the last condemned, visible in replay on the france.tv platform, went to meet men who were the main victims of this repressive law, particularly in the 1970s. Among these witnesses, Michel Chomarat. He was 29 in 1977. A young homosexual from Lyon, he “mounted” regularly in Paris on weekends in order to have fun at the bar Le Manhattan, one of the 86 gay meeting places in the capital at the time.
“The Manhattan, as we say today, was a club of ass, reports Michel Chomarat in this documentary. I went straight to the backrooms [arrière-salle d’un bar ou d’une discothèque, où les clients ont des relations sexuelles]”. He talks about his arrest: “It’s a moment with poppers, we’re somewhere else, we forget everything, and suddenly ‘Police!’ We have indeed seen people who have declared their function as a police officer, police card in hand, when they were as naked as us. It was confusing, but total. I did not lead any wide, it was a professional weekend and I was afraid of losing my job.
That evening, eight other customers as well as the two managers of the place were arrested and transferred to 36, quai des Orfèvres. They are accused of “flagrant offense of public contempt of decency”. “We were handcuffed (…) Some were broken down. I learned later that there were married men, with children, etc The controls on the platforms and then from time to time going to the police stations, it was almost a habit. But that was heavy.”
“But it could go far, there was prison, very heavy fines, registration in the criminal record. I discover the state of the jurisdiction in relation to homosexuals in France.”
Michel Chomaratin the documentary “Homosexuality: the last condemned”
This police raid in Manhattan is making headlines. It mobilizes associations for the defense of homosexuals and several intellectuals. Lhe trial took place a year later, in 1978, before the 10th correctional chamber of the Paris tribunal de grande instance. “I hallucinate, recalls Michel Chomarat, who then became an activist for the LGBT cause. There was a crazy crowd everywhere. Everyone was handing out leaflets. The President, the Court, were irritated to see all this people, this hype, a lot of press. There were I don’t know how many journalists. (…) What is now called ‘The Manhattan Affair’ is a milestone in the history of homosexual struggles in France.”
The judgment of this trial will condemn the men arrested to a symbolic penalty of 500 francs fine, without registration in the criminal record. In 1981, under the presidency of François Mitterand, France removes homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses. The other major breakthrough came in 1982 with the removal of all penalties homosexuality involving persons over the age of 15, and last penal text stigmatizing homosexual relations.
The documentary Homosexuality: the last condemned directed by Ariane Chemin and Emmanuel Hamon is visible in replay on France 5.