The Republic confirms Vichy's homophobic law

On 8 February 1945, France could have ended an injustice. Instead, it enshrined it. That day, the provisional government under Charles de Gaulle issued an ordinance that did not repeal a 1942 law of the Vichy regime but confirmed it and transferred it into Article 331 of the Criminal Code. It was signed by de Gaulle and Justice Minister François de Menthon.

Its content was openly discriminatory. Sexual contact with people under twenty-one was a crime if both were of the same sex. For heterosexual relationships, the age of consent was fifteen. The official explanation stated, in essence, that the rule served to protect young people from seduction and was beyond any criticism. The liberators, of all people, thus took over a provision of the very regime they had fought.

The consequences were far-reaching. According to research, around ten thousand people were convicted on this basis until 1982, almost exclusively men. The vast majority received prison sentences without suspension. Those convicted often lost their jobs, reputation and family, especially as local newspapers published names.

Later, the age limit for same-sex contact was lowered to eighteen, but it was not abolished. Only on 4 August 1982 did France finally delete the provision. Justice Minister Robert Badinter had declared in parliament beforehand that the law carried within it the ideology of an abhorrent era.

Coming to terms with this past is still not complete today. Since 2022, the French parliament has been wrangling over a law to recognise and compensate those convicted. The Senate wanted to establish the responsibility of the Republic only from 8 February 1945, so as not to equate Vichy with the Republic. The National Assembly, by contrast, insisted on the period from 1942. In this way, an almost forgotten date from the liberation became a test of when a state takes responsibility for its injustice.