The Age(s) of Consent: Gay Activism and the Sexualy of Mors France and Quebec (1970-1980) | Cairn Internatnal Edn

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• THE 1970S: GAY ACTIVISM AND THE SEXUALY OF MORS8IN THE EARLY 1970S, THE LEGAL SEXUAL MAJORY FRANCE AND CANADA HAD A PARABLE STCTURE. THE LAW SET A GENERAL AGE OF NSENT (15 FRANCE, 14 CANADA) AND PROVID FOR A SPECIAL REGIME THE SE OF HOMOSEXUAL RELATNS (21 BOTH S). SEEN AS A THREAT TO YOUTH AND MORALY, HOMOSEXUALS WERE STIGMATIZED BOTH UNTRI. IN 1960, THE FRENCH NATNAL ASSEMBLY ADOPTED THE MIRGUET AMENDMENT, WHICH CLASSIFIED HOMOSEXUALY AS A “SOCIAL SURGE” AND PLACED A LIST OF “SURG”, CLUDG ALHOLISM, TUBERCULOSIS AND PROSTUTN. SEVERAL MONTHS LATER, THIS AMENDMENT WAS FOLLOWED BY A DOUBLG OF THE SENTENC CURRED FOR PUBLIC CENCY “WHEN NSISTS OF AN ACT AGAST NATURE WH AN DIVIDUAL OF THE SAME SEX”. A 1954 REFORM OF THE CANADIAN CRIMAL CO EXPAND THE TEGORY OF THOSE SUFFERG OM “SEXUAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY” TO CLU DIVIDUALS SENTENCED FOR “GROSS CENCY”, THEREBY RENRG THEM LIABLE TO AN TERMATE PERD OF TENTN KEEPG WH A 1949 LAW. [14] IN THE EARLY 1970S, THE FIRST GAY POLIL MOBILIZATNS ATTACKED THE LEGAL NORMS, THE SOCIAL REPRENTATNS THAT LEGIMATED THEM AND THE REPRSIVE PRACTIC WHICH THEY RULTED.EXPERIMENTATN GROUPS

THE 1970S: GAY ACTIVISM AND THE SEXUALY OF MORS8IN THE EARLY 1970S, THE LEGAL SEXUAL MAJORY FRANCE AND CANADA HAD A PARABLE STCTURE. THE LAW SET A GENERAL AGE OF NSENT (15 FRANCE, 14 CANADA) AND PROVID FOR A SPECIAL REGIME THE SE OF HOMOSEXUAL RELATNS (21 BOTH S). SEEN AS A THREAT TO YOUTH AND MORALY, HOMOSEXUALS WERE STIGMATIZED BOTH UNTRI. IN 1960, THE FRENCH NATNAL ASSEMBLY ADOPTED THE MIRGUET AMENDMENT, WHICH CLASSIFIED HOMOSEXUALY AS A “SOCIAL SURGE” AND PLACED A LIST OF “SURG”, CLUDG ALHOLISM, TUBERCULOSIS AND PROSTUTN. SEVERAL MONTHS LATER, THIS AMENDMENT WAS FOLLOWED BY A DOUBLG OF THE SENTENC CURRED FOR PUBLIC CENCY “WHEN NSISTS OF AN ACT AGAST NATURE WH AN DIVIDUAL OF THE SAME SEX”. A 1954 REFORM OF THE CANADIAN CRIMAL CO EXPAND THE TEGORY OF THOSE SUFFERG OM “SEXUAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY” TO CLU DIVIDUALS SENTENCED FOR “GROSS CENCY”, THEREBY RENRG THEM LIABLE TO AN TERMATE PERD OF TENTN KEEPG WH A 1949 LAW. [14] IN THE EARLY 1970S, THE FIRST GAY POLIL MOBILIZATNS ATTACKED THE LEGAL NORMS, THE SOCIAL REPRENTATNS THAT LEGIMATED THEM AND THE REPRSIVE PRACTIC WHICH THEY RULTED.EXPERIMENTATN GROUPS

“Opponents of pedophilia were acced of beg ‘reactnary’ and pedophil were refed not as guilty of sexual abe but as victims, like homosexuals, of ‘retrogra’ legislatn”—a reference to laws of the era that crimalized homosexualy and was wispread rejectn of the movement—cludg vol phback om femists, fay therapists, and a handful of women ernment. At the same time, while the number of reported s was on the rise, nvictns for homosexual acts wh mors were creasg. As Corrive explaed: “In France … sexual behavrs, homoerotic or not, dropped importance on the level of judicial terventn as the sexual revolutn took hold.

For at the time there was not one legal age of sexual majory but several, their fn beg closely lked wh the reprsn of homosexualy. In Canada – and th Quebec Provce – the fn of the age of nsent relatg to sex and sexual practic foced on two distct prcipl more explicly formulated than France, and tend to safeguard marriage and the fay: the need to protect girls’ chasty agast untimely sctn, and the need to protect boys’ moraly agast homosexual “perversn”. By revisg the history of French and Québéis gay movements, this article propos to exame the emergence, over the urse of the 1970s, of a polil space which the age of nsent and s relatnship to sexual orientatn uld be bated.

3In the early 1970s, French and Québéis gay movements th hered a parable legal issue: the age of sexual majory. Set higher for homosexuals, raised the qutn of the sexual liberty of (legally fed) mors who might even be classified as children or early adolcents.