Gay Paris: Elements for a Geography of Homosexualy | Cairn Internatnal Edn

Contents:

• LE GAY PARIS
• LE MARAIS: "GAY PARIS" AND THE CONSTCTN OF AN LGBTQIA+ MEC
• 'GAY PAREE' TAK ON NEW MEANG
• [VOBULARY] GAY PARIS
• GAY PARIS - PARIS FOM
• TEN THGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT GAY PARIS
• 35 FRENCH GAY SLANG WORDS YOU NEED TO KNOW
• EUROPEAN CI HAVG AT LEAST 60 GAY AND LBIAN BS 2004EUROPEAN CI HAVG AT LEAST 60 GAY AND LBIAN BS 200413IF PARIS APPEARS AS A PAL OF HOMOSEXUALY BEE OF THE QUANTY AND DIVERSY OF S MERCIAL OFFERGS TEND FOR GAYS, CERTALY DO NOT HAVE THE IMAGE OR THE RA OF S TWO MA PETORS, ON THE EUROPEAN OR WORLD STAGE. THE HOMOSEXUAL MUNI THERE APPEAR MUCH LS STCTURED AND ENGAGED THE SOCIAL AND POLIL FIELD THAN BERL (GRéSILLON 2000), AND ACRDG TO OUR OBSERVATNS, MUCH LS FTIVE, AVANT-GAR, AND EXTROVERTED THAN LONDON. GENERALLY, ONE NOT THAT BEE THEY ARE STILL RELATIVELY ISOLATED AND MARGALIZED THE SPACE AND THE LIFE OF THE CY, THEY ARE LS EVINCE THAN OTHER INIC PLAC OF HOMOSEXUAL MUNI. NOHELS – AND THE ELECTN 2001 OF AN OPENLY GAY MAYOR IS A CLEAR EXAMPLE – THGS HAVE CHANGED SIGNIFINTLY RECENT YEARS.14FIRSTLY, THE GAY PRI EVENT, [11] A GREAT ANNUAL FTIVAL MIXG TECHNO RHYTHMS AND POLIL SLOGANS (FIG. 2) IS, WH (FOR SEVERAL YEARS) APPROXIMATELY HALF A LN MONSTRATORS THE STREETS OF PARIS (PARED TO ONLY 800 1979), THE LARGT GATHERG OF THE YEAR TERMS OF THE NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS, EVEN IF DO NOT RONATE TO ANY GREAT EXTENT THE MEDIA. THEN, IF THE DOMANT POSN OF PARIS ON A EUROPEAN SLE IS NTTED, THE PAL RETAS S NATNAL HEGEMONY. INED, THE DISTRIBUTN OF GAY TABLISHMENTS REVEALS A VERY HIERARCHIL STCTURE. IF LYON HAS A GAY MERCIAL FABRIC OF ABOUT 30 TABLISHMENTS, OTHER MAJOR CI ARE LS WELL PROVID FOR (ONLY 5 PROVCIAL CI HAD AT LEAST 20 TABLISHMENTS 2004). FALLY, NO TABLISHMENT THE PROVC N PETE WH THE RENOWN AND ATTRACTIVENS OF THE MOST FAMO PARISIAN GAY BARS OR DISTHEQU, WHICH SOME S HAVE AN ATTRACTIVENS ON A NATNAL OR EVEN NTENTAL SLE. WH PARIS, THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTN OF GAY AND LBIAN MERCIAL TABLISHMENTS IS ALSO VERY UNEVEN, BUT EVEN WHEN RTRICTG ONELF TO THIS GEOGRAPHY, THE SPATIALI OF HOMOSEXUALY APPEAR LS SIMPLE TO UNRSTAND THAN ONE MIGHT THK. BETWEEN VISIBILY AND ANONYMY, LICENSED STAT AND ILLEGALY, THE TERRORI OF HOMOSEXUALY SKETCH A SUBTLE ARRANGEMENT OF MULTIPLE CENTRALI.FIG. 2THE PARIS GAY PRI, BETWEEN FOLKLORE AND SOCIAL AND POLIL MANDSTHE PARIS GAY PRI, BETWEEN FOLKLORE AND SOCIAL AND POLIL MANDS

LE GAY PARIS

Helpful Vobulary When Talkg About Gay Life ParisUn marais - A swampUn hôtel particulier - A French mansn orlerally “a private hotel”L’âge d’or - The Goln age Un bar - A barAller boire un verre - To go get a drkPrendre un verre - To have a drkAller en boîte - To go to the clubFaire la fête (tf*) - To partyRearch has shown that the number of same-sex hoeholds holdg PACS (pacte civil solidaré, or civil unns) is evenly distributed throughout the cy, ditg that gay people live everywhere throughout Paris, not exclively the Marais. "The French pal has always wooed visors wh s reputatn for fe dg and high fashn, and Paris ntually sh on s mystique as the land of love and, Cy Hall has a new strategy: sellg Paris as a leadg statn for gay travelers.

Officials Paris say they are enuraged by a trend toward greater tolerance but are still battlg nservatism and Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, when elected last year beme the cy's first openly gay mayor and proudly led this summer's Gay Pri para. Delanoe uldn't attend a meetg last month to gurate the gay-iendly tourism mpaign bee he was recuperatg om a stabbg attack by a man who said he disliked overall challenge for officials workg on the mpaign is to tweak the image of a cy famo for photographs like the 1950 Robert Doisne snapshot of a man and woman stealg a kiss cintally ont of Cy have only begun turng on the project, which is not to be publicly lnched until June 2003.

The Maison la France Los Angel is workg wh Amerin tour operators and helped anize this week's fully paid trip to France for gay media on the theme of gay is hardly the first European pal to target the gay tourist. Berl's mayor, Kls Wowere, is openly gay and marched Berl's Gay Pri para this and Berl, like Paris, have proment gay districts, which are featured on their tourism Web s along wh listgs for gay-iendly hotels and those ci have a natural advantage, said Remi Calmon, a spokman for France's 600-member Natnal Unn of Gay Bs.

LE MARAIS: "GAY PARIS" AND THE CONSTCTN OF AN LGBTQIA+ MEC

Details of how to make Paris more people-iendly were still beg worked out, he ia that has sparked great tert was dreamed up the small Loire Valley cy of Le Mans, bt known for s 24-hour to s own missn to attract gay tourism, Le Mans Cy Hall has drafted a "Lbian and Gay Friendly Wele Charter, " which they mailed to lol merchants this fall.

French gay slang is no gay-speak is generally translated om English/Amerin gay slang, and as wh s heterosexual unterpart, is bt to know a thg or two about , whatever your you are cur about gay slang and how to say gay, lbian, or homosexual French, we piled a list for you! Th, no geographer has llaborated wh the many dictnari and encyclopedias published recent years, which have been voted to homosexual cultur, nor participated the symposiums spired by Gay and Lbian Studi the Uned Stat on this subject, (such as the Renntr ternatnal sur l cultur gays et lbienn [Internatnal Meetgs on Gay and Lbian Culture] anized Paris by the Ge Pompidou Center 1997).

'GAY PAREE' TAK ON NEW MEANG

2“What we should be askg ourselv is not about why gay and lbian cultur exist (…); but rather why they are ncealed, ” the philosopher and soclogist Didier Eribon, a specialist on homosexual culture France, pertently remds (2003, 16). It requir a knowledge, or even a practil experience of the terrori ncerned, an sight to the logic of those who nstct them and of the habs of those who equent them, difficult issu bee the anizatn and the dynamic of the spac of homosexualy are part visible, as we will monstrate.

It is natural that Paris should be the lotn for the study bee is the only cy France today which has a regnized, visible gay neighborhood, [1] likely to reprent the terrorial basis for a llective homosexual inty. That is why we n wele the exceptn, which is the recent Dictnnaire la géographie et l’pace s sociétés, eded by Jacqu Lévy and Michel Lslt (2003) which, unlike prev works of the same genre, propos an entry for “sexualy” and another for “sexuatn, ” and even refers to Gay and Lbian Studi.

“Long forced to exprs self the margs of urban society, homosexual culture n now flourish broad daylight, the central districts of the metropolis, ” not Boris Grésillon (2000, 312) when speakg about Berl.

[VOBULARY] GAY PARIS

While their fluence has always been nsirable artistic and lerary productn (Eribon 2003; Tamagne 2000) and the var movements mpaigng for equal rights, seems that homosexual women have a more discreet liftyle, more stable, and any se very different om that of men (particularly rpect of their needs and ways of meetg). Homosexual relatnships were mon and accepted the ci of ancient Greece (Halper 1990), jt as they were wispread (but already tolerated ls) the Italian ci of the Renaissance (Rocke 1996), or most of the large European ci om the seventeenth century onwards (Higgs 1999).

), homosexuals, bee of their limed number and their safety needs, mt fd or create plac of solidary and fe works of sociabily, build livg spac which, if not a muny, are at least llective nature (Altman 1983; D’E 2002; Murray 1996). The cy is the terrory that n bt meet the expectatns and is even the only one allowg pe om the domatn, even hostily, of the majory groupgs: “They (ci) beme plac where gays uld, to some gree, pe om the nstant prsur of an tolerant heterosexual society” (Lria and Knopp, 1985, 158).

Two ditive pots: even if not only lookg at homosexual upl, wh nearly 130 “regnized upl” [4] per 10, 000 habants aged 18 years or more, pared wh the average of 60 France at the end of the 2004 [5], Paris is well ahead terms of the number of people signg a PACS (uple’s civil ntract), regardls of the sex of the signatori. Siarly, if we look at the plac of rince of ers who subm classified ads for enunters on gay webs, the ma urban agglomeratns clearly domate (after the number of ads has been related to the size of the ci).

GAY PARIS - PARIS FOM

But is also reasonable to assume that, all major ci of veloped untri, the homosexual populatn is over-reprented and has been for a long time (Higgs 1999), even if the phenomenon has probably been magnified recent s, as a rult of the wispread crease mobily. The ci polarize young homosexuals for whom the provc have been too rtrictive, and who are sure to experience – by “gog up” to the pal or the big cy – the cktail of anonymy and visibily, paradoxilly only appearance.

If one accepts the theory of gentrifitn proposed by David Ley (1980), favorg the cultural dimensn to expla the emergence and creasg mand for hog the center, gays, wh their terts, their preference for plac wh good ameni (Black et al. [9] “Ever sce my childhood, an imaged Paris had been the shg pla twklg at the center of my ner stellar map” (Whe 1998, 12) nfs the young gay hero of the betiful novel by Edmund Whe, La Symphonie s adix, as he leav New York for Paris. In the Amerin versn of the Brish gay seri Queer As Folk, most of the characters dream aloud of gog to vis and even live Paris…12Wh nearly 140 mercial tablishments [10] 2004, followg exponential growth durg the 1980s and 1990s, the French pal is ranked jt ahead of Berl (but behd if this number is related to the rint populatn) and que clearly ahead of London (Fig.

TEN THGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT GAY PARIS

The historian Florence Tamagne (2000) has shown that, om the begng of the twentieth century and ntrast to the suatn neighborg untri, the French pal was benefg fully om the relative benevolence of the thori and the absence of ercive measur even if, as the other pals, “the progrsive tablishment (…) of a homosexual subculture a fear of ‘ntagn’ public opn and feeds the myth of nspiracy (…)” (Tamagne 2002, 13). This predomance at the European level is rerced durg the 1930s as a rult of the Nazi reprsn Germany, general, and particularly Berl (Tamagne 2000) 1European ci havg at least 60 gay and lbian bs 2004European ci havg at least 60 gay and lbian bs 200413If Paris appears as a pal of homosexualy bee of the quanty and diversy of s mercial offergs tend for gays, certaly do not have the image or the ra of s two ma petors, on the European or world stage. The homosexual muni there appear much ls stctured and engaged the social and polil field than Berl (Grésillon 2000), and acrdg to our observatns, much ls ftive, avant-gar, and extroverted than London.

35 FRENCH GAY SLANG WORDS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Wh Paris, the spatial distributn of gay and lbian mercial tablishments is also very uneven, but even when rtrictg onelf to this geography, the spatiali of homosexualy appear ls simple to unrstand than one might thk. Between visibily and anonymy, licensed stat and illegaly, the terrori of homosexualy sketch a subtle arrangement of multiple 2The Paris Gay Pri, between folklore and social and polil mandsThe Paris Gay Pri, between folklore and social and polil mands4 –.

The Multi-Faceted Centrali of Parisian Homosexualy15Across the arrondissements (districts), the distributn of gay and lbian tablishments Paris prents a clear ntrast between the center and the periphery (Fig. Moreover, an analysis of the geography of the PACS shows an over-reprentatn of signatori both the center and the east of Paris (Ruelland and Tonnerre, 2003) 3Distributn of gay and lbian bs Paris, 2004Distributn of gay and lbian bs Paris, 200416In fact, the distributn of bs is not at all nfed by the lims of the arrondissements.

The existence of a gay district, maly posed of bars, rtrants, fashn shops – almost all tend for male homosexuals – supports the need to appropriate public space (for example by flyg the rabow flag there, the emblem of homosexuals), to display and onelf, short to exhib, to prent onelf. Unniably, this volv a level of mercializatn which some nsir excsive, alienatg, imposg uniformy and likely to generate soc-enomic divisns wh gay and lbian muni, but also which creat eedom, sociabily and culture, ed a llective inty. This excsive mercializatn and tough screeng based on money was vigoroly nmned by homosexual associatns and would rult both the disappearance of almost all of the stutns the early 1980s and the replacement of the e Sate-Anne district by the Marais.

EUROPEAN CI HAVG AT LEAST 60 GAY AND LBIAN BS 2004EUROPEAN CI HAVG AT LEAST 60 GAY AND LBIAN BS 200413IF PARIS APPEARS AS A PAL OF HOMOSEXUALY BEE OF THE QUANTY AND DIVERSY OF S MERCIAL OFFERGS TEND FOR GAYS, CERTALY DO NOT HAVE THE IMAGE OR THE RA OF S TWO MA PETORS, ON THE EUROPEAN OR WORLD STAGE. THE HOMOSEXUAL MUNI THERE APPEAR MUCH LS STCTURED AND ENGAGED THE SOCIAL AND POLIL FIELD THAN BERL (GRéSILLON 2000), AND ACRDG TO OUR OBSERVATNS, MUCH LS FTIVE, AVANT-GAR, AND EXTROVERTED THAN LONDON. GENERALLY, ONE NOT THAT BEE THEY ARE STILL RELATIVELY ISOLATED AND MARGALIZED THE SPACE AND THE LIFE OF THE CY, THEY ARE LS EVINCE THAN OTHER INIC PLAC OF HOMOSEXUAL MUNI. NOHELS – AND THE ELECTN 2001 OF AN OPENLY GAY MAYOR IS A CLEAR EXAMPLE – THGS HAVE CHANGED SIGNIFINTLY RECENT YEARS.14FIRSTLY, THE GAY PRI EVENT, [11] A GREAT ANNUAL FTIVAL MIXG TECHNO RHYTHMS AND POLIL SLOGANS (FIG. 2) IS, WH (FOR SEVERAL YEARS) APPROXIMATELY HALF A LN MONSTRATORS THE STREETS OF PARIS (PARED TO ONLY 800 1979), THE LARGT GATHERG OF THE YEAR TERMS OF THE NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS, EVEN IF DO NOT RONATE TO ANY GREAT EXTENT THE MEDIA. THEN, IF THE DOMANT POSN OF PARIS ON A EUROPEAN SLE IS NTTED, THE PAL RETAS S NATNAL HEGEMONY. INED, THE DISTRIBUTN OF GAY TABLISHMENTS REVEALS A VERY HIERARCHIL STCTURE. IF LYON HAS A GAY MERCIAL FABRIC OF ABOUT 30 TABLISHMENTS, OTHER MAJOR CI ARE LS WELL PROVID FOR (ONLY 5 PROVCIAL CI HAD AT LEAST 20 TABLISHMENTS 2004). FALLY, NO TABLISHMENT THE PROVC N PETE WH THE RENOWN AND ATTRACTIVENS OF THE MOST FAMO PARISIAN GAY BARS OR DISTHEQU, WHICH SOME S HAVE AN ATTRACTIVENS ON A NATNAL OR EVEN NTENTAL SLE. WH PARIS, THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTN OF GAY AND LBIAN MERCIAL TABLISHMENTS IS ALSO VERY UNEVEN, BUT EVEN WHEN RTRICTG ONELF TO THIS GEOGRAPHY, THE SPATIALI OF HOMOSEXUALY APPEAR LS SIMPLE TO UNRSTAND THAN ONE MIGHT THK. BETWEEN VISIBILY AND ANONYMY, LICENSED STAT AND ILLEGALY, THE TERRORI OF HOMOSEXUALY SKETCH A SUBTLE ARRANGEMENT OF MULTIPLE CENTRALI.FIG. 2THE PARIS GAY PRI, BETWEEN FOLKLORE AND SOCIAL AND POLIL MANDSTHE PARIS GAY PRI, BETWEEN FOLKLORE AND SOCIAL AND POLIL MANDS

The Marais: “A Safe Nursery, a Center of Attractn like No Other” [12]19From the outset, the Marais district had all the advantag for rapid velopment and succs relatn to homosexual muni: a perfect geographil centraly, excellent accsibily (particularly wh the nstctn of the RER (rail work) 1977), very old buildgs (which do not lsen the charm of the neighborhood) and space available at very low st. Ined, those who now rail agast the existence of an area of nspicuo homosexualy the heart of Paris, one of s olst, most central, well-known and betiful districts are perhaps fettg that at the time the first gay bar was opened 1978 (a bar aptly lled Le Village), the e du Plâtre, the Marais was very much the middle of beg renovated and rehabilated (a procs given impet at the end of the 1960s by the Malrx law) and that was far om havg the appearance has today. 20The tablishment of gay bs, which was facilated by the existence of a supply of vant premis and very low land pric, was slow at first and then accelerated the 1980s, would make a signifint ntributn to the functnal and archectural renaissance of the Marais.

If today the Marais, along wh the spac which surround , is the Parisian, even the French ht li (fed as a “place where valu nnse, where practic nverge and emotns are experienced” [Debarbix 2003]), of the homosexual inty, ow much to David Girard, one of the inic entreprenrs of the gay mercial scene of the 1970s and 1980s. 21At the same time as the birth of the Gai Pied and Masqu magaz 1979, the emergence of a neighborhood which was both an enomic and tourist space and an inty-affirmg terrory, the diversn of part of the public space, vted and then transformed by the homosexual muni, really marks the begng of a new era: that of mass nsumptn, of “g out” and of openg out to the cy.

In Paris as other ci, appears that the time spent the gay district is lived as though were a crossg pot or a stopover a rather plex soc-spatial erary, rrpondg to the pot of sexual tonomy and pennce om the fay. This is the heart of the gay quarter, the one which, wh s substantial ncentratn of gay premis equented very regularly by an ostentat and monosex clientele, is most symbolic of the ia and reprentative of the image eher of the village or the ghetto for the heterosexual populatn as well as for the homosexuals who do or do not equent . Such a ncentratn of gay tablishments such a small area, which greatly creas the opportuni for enunters (which is one of the raisons d’être of gay neighborhoods), is very unual (see the map of the cy plans the Spartac gui), bee is not an extensive area, and is too small to acmodate many nightclubs or sex-clubs, which “vour” space.