Why are the french so gay
The French men convicted for being gay: 'I'm going to tell you about my queer life'
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Long Read'The underground years' (1/5). In 1982, France repealed 'offense of homosexuality,' which discriminated against gay men. In a five-part series, Le Monde looks back on a time when lgbtq+ people in France were treated as pariahs. Bernard Bousset was one of the victims of this repression.
There are two letters on the doorbell: BB. You have to listen carefully to Bernard Bousset's account of his "eventful" life to perceive the personal sense behind the preference of these initials. An uncomplicated, warm-hearted man, the former bar owner sits comfortably on one of the sofas in his apartment on Rue des Archives, Paris, just above the male lover bar he bought in 1996. "When I tell adolescent people that I went to court just because I slept with an 18-year-old boy when I was 23, they look at me as if I were a dinosaur," he says matter-of-factly. "They said to me: 'But that's not achievable, are you 100?'" No, Bousset is only 80, but he grew up a long way from Paris, "at a time
France
Interesting Cities to Visit in France
PARIS
Paris, one of the most visited cities in the world, was nicknamed “The City of Light” because it was the birthplace of the Age of Enlightenment in the 1700s. The nickname stuck and has since popularized because every evening, the city’s many famous landmarks and sites are illuminated to full glory. These include the Eiffel Tower, the many boulevards, bridges, the Champs-Elysées, Arc de Triomphe and many more. The Louvre Museum is the world’s largest art museum as well as existence a historic monument. Finally, the Marais district is the focal point of the city’s LGBTQ+ scene with the landmark BHV and BHV Homme department store, the many small cafes, Gay bars like Duplex, boutique shops and art galleries.
NICE
Nice is located in southern France along the Mediterranean. The historic center of Kind (called Vieux Nice) has slim cobblestone streets, Baroque churches and lively markets selling ‘Niçois” ingredients like black olives, tomatoes and anchovies.
Nice has a long 7km (4.4 miles) beachfront promenade called Promenade des Anglais,
Why Did France Take So Long to Approve Male lover Marriage? Aren’t the French Ultra-Liberal?
That’s how New York Times journalist Lydia Polgreen reacted on Twitter Tuesday to the news that the French National Assembly had voted to accept same-sex marriage.
“Yeah, could hold fooled me, France is so… Uhm, free?” replied one of her followers.
As a French journalist based in the United States, I find the cliché of an ultra-liberal France to be misguided. In the collective imagination of Americans everywhere, my promiscuous country celebrates love, any type of love, on all occasions—which should indicate that it celebrates any type of sexual orientation. Unfortunately, that’s just not true.
The French may own a reputation for treating sex more casually than other nationalities, but there’s nothing casual about marriage—and when it comes to a key social reform, France has not lived up to its “free-spirit” reputation.
Though polls consistently demonstrate that a majority of the French are in favor of gay marriage, all but 10 of the conservative members of parliament voted against the “marriage for all” bill. Valérie Pécresse, a former minister of the Sarkozy administration, even vowed to “unmar
Gay Marriage and the Limits of French Liberalism
Gay Marriage and the Limits of French Liberalism
Marc Olivier Baruch ▪ Fall 2013Last spring the rights of same-sex couples gained recognition in a number of places throughout the planet. In the Combined States, three states—Delaware, Minnesota, and Rhode Island—legalized same-sex marriage, while supreme courts in two heavyweights on the international scene, Brazil and Germany, struck down statutes discriminating against homosexuals in the name of equality under the statute. All these places have quite distinct social structures and legal systems, yet gay marriage did not stir much controversy in any of them.
But it was different in France—and for regrettable reasons. To be sure, on May 18 President François Hollande did signal a law stipulating that “marriage is a contract between two persons who are either of the same sex or of a different sex.” Eleven days later, Hélène Mandroux, the mayor of Montpellier, was the first common official to wed a homosexual couple.
But what fears and turmoil the debate aroused! On May 21 the right-wing historian Dominique Venner (a former member of the OAS,