Testimony
“We loved them dead or in the closet”: when France condemned homosexuality
On Wednesday evening, the French National Assembly unanimously approved a bill aimed at recognizing and repairing the harm suffered by people convicted of homosexuality between 1942 and 1982. Michel Chomarat, arrested in 1977 for “indecent exposure” in a gay bar, remembers that time when homosexuality was subject to the law.
Gay activist Michel Chomarat, the last convicted for homosexuality in France, poses in Lyon on November 28, 2023. © OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE / AFP
By: Caroline Renaux Follow
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One night in May 1977, in the basement of a gay bar in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, Michel Chomarat let go of his sexuality, which he could only express out of sight.
Plunged into the darkness of Manhattan, he allows himself the caresses that he cannot do in his native Lyon, where he is “
listed as homosexual
” by the police.
Here, only a peephole separates him from those who condemn what he is.
“
It was what we call a
backroom
: a place of private pleasure between adult men
,” remembers the 75-year-old man.
Where everyone conforms to the usual
dress code
– mustache, tight jeans and leather – it is difficult to spot the eleven police officers who came to raid there.
“
The police burst in suddenly, without warning.
I thought they were looking for drugs!
», recalls Michel Chomarat.
“
They were already inside the establishment and besides, I think we were even having fun with them and vice versa.
More than 45 years later, I am still surprised by the violence of it all.
» Handcuffed and transferred to 36, quai des Orfèvres in the company of eight other customers and the two owners of the establishment, Michel Chomarat, then aged 29, underwent interrogation all night.
His misdeed?
A public outrage against modesty “
unnatural with an individual of the same sex
”, punished at the time by article 330 paragraph 2 of the Penal Code.
“
An inspector questioned us one after the other.
He was typing on the typewriter with his two fingers, while asking us some rather perverse questions.
He absolutely wanted us to admit everything we knew
,” describes the gay activist.
Regularly arrested between the vespasiennes of Lyon, where homosexuals enjoy their sexual freedom in the anonymity of these cup-shaped urinals, Michel Chomarat is used to the procedure.
“
For me, sex was political.
I already knew how to respond and act
,” he says proudly.
Read alsoFrance: the new plan to combat anti-LGBT+ hatred struggles to convince associations
“I told myself I was going to lose everything”
A well-established mechanism, but with a different outcome this time.
“
I was often stopped by the Lyon police and transferred to police stations for identity checks, but it usually didn't go any further.
» In October 1978, he was fined 500 francs – the equivalent of 245 euros today – without entry in his criminal record.
A symbolic sentence compared to the three years of imprisonment and the fine of 15,000 francs that he risked, but no less revolting.
“
For me, it was as surprising as it was disproportionate: we were not doing any harm, we were in private and adults!
», Bursts the former convict.
“
Above all, I told myself that I was going to lose everything, including my job, given that the procedure was public and that we had been caught in the act.
»
Also shocked by the affair, several intellectuals published a text of support on the day of the trial.
“
We can only be astounded by such a judicial deployment: it was enough that one spring night a dubious zeal animated a few police officers who came in flirtatious acts to provoke provocation in a private homosexual club and known as such, to produce the crime there that they were supposed to discover there
,” reads a petition signed by Gilles Deleuze, Marguerite Duras, André Glucksmann and others.
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Scandalized by the court's conclusions, Michel Chomarat decided to appeal.
In January 1980, during his second trial, the fine was upheld.
The defendant and two others arrested from the
backroom
appealed to the Court of Cassation.
“
It was the first time that homosexuals appealed to the Court of Cassation
,” says Michel Chomarat.
If his attempt fails again, he will end up never paying the fine, repealed by François Mitterrand during his election three months later.
He will thus become the last convicted for homosexuality in France.
More than 60,000 victims
Between 1942 and 1982, Michel Chomarat was not the only victim of what he called “
state homophobia
”.
Régis Schlagdenhauffen, a researcher who tries to quantify them, counts more than 10,000 convicted for “
homosexuality offenses
” and at least 50,000 others for public outrages of modesty.
“
It was intense police repression, followed by judicial repression.
Homosexuals were not wanted in public spaces, gardens or private spaces.
We loved them dead or in the closet
,” insists Michel Chomarat.
Categorized as a “
social scourge
” by the Mirguet amendment in 1960, homosexuality is singled out in the same way as alcoholism, tuberculosis or prostitution.
“
Gays
kept to themselves, did not assume their sexual orientation, navigated with the risk of being attacked and often led double lives
,” testifies Michel Chomarat.
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Doomed to silence, the victims of this repression are all the more difficult to find since the proposed law, which recognizes the “responsibility” of the French State in their persecution, arrives “
too late
” according to the homosexual activist.
“
Most died because they were old, because they had AIDS, or because they committed suicide.
There are very few survivors who want to communicate
,” regrets Michel Chomarat, who estimates that fewer than 200 people will be able to benefit from the 10,000 euros in financial compensation.
“
I speak on behalf of all those who are no longer here
,” he insists.
Although the vote of deputies sends a “
strong signal
” according to LGBT+ associations, the text must still return to the Senate before its final adoption.
If it is voted on in these terms, Michel Chomarat intends to request financial compensation, provided that he is “
still alive
” and that the procedure is “
not too complicated
”.
After 50 years of combat, Michel Chomarat still fears that it is not quite over: in 2022, the
SOS Homophobia association has recorded 184 cases of homophobic attacks
, or one every two days, an increase of 28% compared to 2021. Above all, the activist fears that the Senate will again empty the text of its content, as it did on November 22 by removing the financial reparation and retaining only the period 1945-1982, thus refusing to assume French responsibility under the Vichy regime.
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