"For a woman to love men ...": a campaign against homophobia provokes outrage

A campaign to raise awareness of homophobia around the world has been controversial since posters in French cities use shock phrases such as "for a woman to like men, nothing better than a gang rape". If the objective of the campaign is specified at the bottom of the poster, in smaller characters, many associative actors are indignant.

Their slogans did not go unnoticed: posters, arranged in several French cities to raise awareness of the fight against homophobia, triggered strong indignant reactions. Among the shock phrases adopted for the campaign: "for a woman loves men, nothing better than a gang rape" in bold and white letters on a black background. The goal: to raise awareness against homophobia and encourage passers-by to sign a petition.

The woman still humiliated and the trivialized #viol
cc @MarleneSchiappa

It is urgent that a decision to remove these disgusting posters be taken by @nantesfr #Nanteshttps: //t.co/mxkLbNKtuD

But many associative actors denounced the virulence of the message. This is also the case of the deputy of Nantes, Valérie Oppelt, who demanded the withdrawal of these posters, considered "disgusting" . That is to say if the message has difficulty to pass: it is only in smaller, below the sentences shocks, that appears the following sentence: "sign the petition on pinktriangleissue.com #endhomophobia [to finish with homophobia] ".

For those who have not understood anything yet, these posters in many cities in France are not homophobic, nor "for the acceptance" of rape but precisely to sign this petition that goes against these horrors. https://t.co/8sRc9gYHPj pic.twitter.com/xBcodaPCWp

The European Lesbian Conference also called on the creators of this campaign, the Austrian magazine Vangardist and the French communication agencies Serviceplan and Mediaplus, to ask them if they had consulted LGBT associations before choosing their messages. Another aspect is problematic: below this shocking phrase on gang rape, the poster continues, as an explanation: "In Jamaica, women are raped to cure them of being lesbians. "

What do you think about lesbian sex and lesbian sex? Do you think about lesbophobia?

Why point to Jamaica, asks the European Lesbian Conference, to campaign in France and Europe "where many lesbophobic violence take place? " The director of the communication agency Serviceplace, who designed the poster, explained to Franceinfo. According to him, "the main objective is simple: we want to force the eyes of passers-by to land on these posters, and cause a maximum of reactions" .

"This project invites to the signing of a global petition , develops Service Plan in its statement, aimed at obtaining a United Nations registration of the rights of LGBTQI people in Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" . To this day and despite the controversy, the petition has collected only 2740 signatures.