The history of LGBTQ people in France covers the social, political, and cultural history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer individuals in France and how French institutions and society have interacted with them.Initially marked by severe legal and religious condemnation, sometimes leading to death, particularly affecting the Third Estate more than the aristocracy, the French Revolution ended the criminalization of homosexual practices. However, under the Napoleonic Empires, repression took new forms: discreet and police-driven under Napoleon I, it was coupled with medical condemnation under Napoleon III. Despite this, a homosexual and cross-dressing sociability and culture emerged by the late 19th century, particularly in Paris. This relative freedom did not extend to the colonies, where France maintained a sexual order to support colonial rule.
The French LGBT community became more structured throughout the 20th century, with distinctions between cross-dressing and transsexuality emerging in the 1960s, alongside the creation of transgender associations and the first political demands and demonstrations in the 1970s. These efforts led to the establishment of the Pride parades in France and significant theoretical contributions to international Lesbian feminism through the work of Monique Wittig.
While LGBT individuals in France achieved the end of homosexual registration and discrimination based on the age of consent in 1982, the late 20th century was heavily impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It was not until 1999 that the Civil solidarity pact (PACS) was introduced, followed by the legalization of Same-sex marriage in France in 2013.
Middle ages In the 13th century France, sodomy resulted in castration on the first offense, dismemberment on the second, and burning on the third. Lesbian behavior was punished with specific mutilations for the first two offenses and burning on the third as well.
Early modern period
Conceptions of homosexuality
Theological, legal, and moral condemnation
Enlightenment philosophers such as Voltaire, Condorcet, and Montesquieu argued against the penalization of homosexuality, though their opposition was often paired with moral condemnation, criticizing legal penalties as less effective than social disapproval. Some, like Diderot and Théophile de Bordeu, argued that homosexual acts should not be condemned as they merely provided pleasure to participants. Historian Bryant T. Ragan Jr. suggests that frequent negative associations between homosexuality and philosophers by Enlightenment critics limited their defense of homosexuality, fearing accusations of being homosexual themselves. For example, Voltaire and d'Alembert faced such accusations, with homosexuality labeled as "Socratic love" or "the philosophers' vice."
Homophobic thought relied on theological, legal, and social arguments.
Theologically, homosexuality was linked to heresy. The pornographic novel Thérèse philosophe refers to homosexuals as "heretics", and the term "bougre", commonly used for gay men, derived from the 12th century term for Bulgarians, seen as both heretics and sodomites. This association was so strong that, from the Reformation to the late, Protestants like Pierre Jurieu accused Catholic priests of homosexual relations. Anti-clerical figures, such as Voltaire in Candide, echoed this, fostering a pornographic imaginary of monasteries as sites of gay and lesbian debauchery, as seen in Mirabeau's Erotika Biblion. Homosexuality was often described indirectly as "the most notorious vice" or "the abomination of abominations", as theologians believed naming it explicitly might encourage its practice.
Jurists, however, explicitly condemned homosexuality, using "sodomite" to refer to both anal sex and same-sex relations, clearly targeting the latter as a crime. Homosexuality was also seen as a violation of natural laws. François Bernier, for instance, erroneously believed homosexuality was unique to humans, deeming it a perversion. This view naturalized heterosexuality, with literature celebrating male-female attraction as self-evident, while homosexual relations were deemed harmful to health. Diderot challenged this in D'Alembert's Dream, arguing that homosexual acts, being practiced by humans, are part of human nature.
This period also saw the fetishization of lesbianism as a pornographic subject for heterosexual male audiences.
Homosexuality as a social construct Some philosophers viewed homosexuality not as a sin or individual trait but as a result of societal organization, a social construct. This led to varied moral conclusions. Some, like Montesquieu, criticized social practices fostering homosexuality, such as harems in Persian Letters, nude sports in ancient Greece, or boys' boarding schools in The Spirit of the Laws. Similarly, Diderot critiqued convents in The Nun.
Helvétius, in On Man, argued that the acceptance of homosexuality ("Greek love") in societies like ancient Greece, Peru, or Japanese Buddhist monasteries suggested a need to compare moral laws across societies to identify universal principles.
Emergence of homosexuality as an identity and culture Between the 1700s and 1720s, male homosexuality began to be seen not as a behavior anyone might engage in but as a distinct identity. The term "sodomite" started to describe a way of being, perceived as more effeminate than heterosexual men, and was embraced by some as an identity. Similarly, by the 1780s, "sapphic" and "tribade" denoted lesbians, seen as more masculine than heterosexual women.
This shift framed homosexual attraction as excluding heterosexual attraction, moving away from earlier views of it as a form of bisexuality. In Louis-Charles Fougeret de Monbron's The Cosmopolite, Muslim men are depicted as frequently bisexual, contrasting with Christian societies where such orientation was considered rare. Mirabeau's defense of homosexuality, invoking Plato's androgynes, posited that some beings were originally same-sex pairs, explaining lesbians and gay men but rendering bisexuality incomprehensible.
This emerging identity fostered a male homosexual community and gay culture, particularly in Paris. Sodomites adopted effeminate mannerisms, feminine nicknames, and informal address. Cruising developed in public spaces associated with prostitution, such as the Seine riverbanks, northern boulevards, and the Tuileries Garden, Luxembourg Gardens, and Palais-Royal Garden. Many cabarets served as places for socializing and sexual activity in the 18th century, particularly the Petit-Trianon, the Tour d'Argent, the Croix d'Or, the Roi des Laboureurs, and the Franck Pinot. A specific vocabulary emerged: "sodomite" was general, "giton" denoted a solely passive partner, and "bardache" a young passive man with older partners.
Legal and police repression of homosexuality
Despite social condemnation, legal repression of homosexual behavior gradually decreased. In the Ancien Régime, there was a gap between harsh legal penalties and their actual enforcement: by the early, homosexual acts typically resulted in only brief imprisonment. The police used "mouches" (informants), often recruited from prisoners, to pose as individuals seeking sex in cruising areas to catch offenders in the act. Hundreds of men were arrested annually.
In 1725, the Deschauffours affair—a network abducting young boys for sale to aristocrats and clergy—further tarnished homosexuality's public image. This led to the execution of Jean Diot and Bruno Lenoir in 1750 for a simple public sexual act, marking them as the last individuals executed for homosexuality in France.
Between 1714 and 1783, five other sodomites were executed, but their homosexuality was an aggravating factor in crimes like murder or rape. Overall, the 18th century in France was characterized by a differentiated treatment of male homosexuality: the aristocracy benefited from the leniency of judges in court rulings for "sodomy offenses", while the third estate carried out its sentences.
According to Antoine Idier, this relative legal leniency reflected a shift toward police-based repression. In 1670, an appendix to the Criminal Ordinance allowed police to pursue sodomy not as a crime but as a public order and safety violation. Thus, although 1726 marks the last recorded imprisonment for sodomy in the Bastille, thousands of men were arrested by the police during the 18th century for questioning about homosexual practices. From the 1780s, Parisian police established "pederasty patrols" to monitor cruising areas and track known sodomites. These practices continued after the decriminalization of sodomy, with judges relying on charges like indecent exposure.
Antoine Idier's 2025 analysis contradicts historian Jean-Louis Flandrin's 1981 thesis, which argued that homosexual behaviors were too common to be prosecuted and posed less threat to social order than out-of-wedlock births.
Expressions of cross-dressing
Around 1775, the Chevalière d'Éon, a diplomat for Louis XV at the English court who lived as a man for 49 years, began dressing as a woman until her death in 1810. Modern perspectives view her as either a cross-dresser, an intersex person, or a transgender woman.
From the Revolutionary period to 1890
Revolutionary period The revolutionary period saw a decrease in arrests for sodomy, which Antoine Idier attributes to a general reduction in police activity rather than a specific change in attitudes toward homosexuality.
Without specific debate, the offense of sodomy was removed from the 1791 Penal Code. François Atreyu suggests this was less about increased tolerance and more due to secularization, Enlightenment philosophy, and French Revolution ideals, as sodomy was decriminalized alongside blasphemy, sacrilege, heresy, and magic. Following this decriminalization, the Municipal and Correctional Police Code introduced offenses like public indecency and incitement of youth to debauchery, used to discreetly repress homosexuality and confine it to the private sphere.
Homosexuality and bisexuality were used in politico-pornographic pamphlets to depict the aristocracy's perversion and illegitimacy, particularly targeting Marie-Antoinette. Accusations of "tribadism" with Countess de Polignac and Princess de Lamballe were mixed with charges of nymphomania. Supporters of the constitutional monarchy portrayed de Polignac as a seductress victimizing the queen, while anti-monarchists emphasized the queen's active role to heighten her guilt. This period also saw new stigma against men taking a passive role in homosexual relations, viewed as impotent and emasculated. Accusations of lesbianism were also used to discredit revolutionary and women's rights advocate Théroigne de Méricourt.
Napoleonic period
The 1810 Penal Code did not reinstate the offense of homosexuality but retained charges of public indecency and incitement to debauchery, adding outrage to public decency. Napoleon I's policy toward male homosexuality was generally repressive. While he instructed his Justice Minister not to prosecute two attacked in 1805, believing public trials would be counterproductive by publicizing such relations, he favored discreet and effective police action. Consequently, homosexual men were imprisoned without conviction or expelled from their residences. Napoleon also ordered his Archchancellor, Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès, to publicly maintain a mistress to counter rumors of his homosexuality. He attributed the perceived low prevalence of homosexuality in France to the beauty of French women. Despite this, some of his associates, like prefect Joseph Fiévée, openly lived with his partner Théodore Leclercq.