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In 1977 and 1979, several petitions were signed by a number of prominent French intellectuals, doctors, and psychologists calling for reforms to or the abolition of the Frenchage-of-consent law. A January 1977 petition published inLe Monde criticized theAffaire de Versailles [fr]—the detention of three men arrested for sex offences against children aged 12–13. A May 1977 petition addressed at theFrench Parliament called for the equalization of homosexual and heterosexual ages of consent. A 1979 petition published inLibération defended a man arrested for sexual relations with girls aged 6–12.
In 1945, an ordinance was enacted by the French government that established an age of consent in France of 15. However, an article within this ordinance forbade sodomy and similar "sexual relations against nature" with any person under the age of 21. In 1974, this was lowered to 18.[1] This was perceived by activists, including Michel Foucault and Guy Hocquenghem, as being discriminatory against gay men.[2]
Michel Foucault argued that it is intolerable to assume that a minor is incapable of giving meaningful consent to sexual relations.[3] Foucault also believed consent, as a concept, was a "contractual notion", and that it was not a sufficient measure of whether harm was being conducted.[2] Foucault, Sartre, and newspapers such asLibération andLe Monde each defended the idea of sexual relationships with minors.[4]
On 26 January 1977 an open letter, written byGabriel Matzneff[5] and signed by 69 people, was published inLe Monde, presenting a defense of those placed inpre-trial detention for sexual relations with children under the age of 15.[6]: 16 In particular, the letter addresses theAffaire de Versailles [fr], a 1973 incident in which three men—Bernard Dejager, Jean-Claude Gallien, and Jean Burckardt—were arrested for non-violent sex offences against children aged 12–13.[7] The letter, published the day before their trial,[8] criticizes the French legal system for the long pre-trial detention of the three men and argues that the children had consented, but that the law had denied them their right to consent. Finally, the letter claims that the law is inconsistent—it argues that if minors aged 13 had the "capacity for discernment" to be heldresponsible for a crime, then the law should provide them with the same capacity to consent.[9]
The signatories to the January 1977 petition included Gabriel Matzneff (the petition's author),Jean-Louis Bory,Pierre Hahn [eo;fr;ia;pt],Jean-Luc Hennig [ar;fr;ru],Guy Hocquenghem,Françoise d'Eaubonne,René Schérer,Pierre Guyotat,Louis Aragon,Francis Ponge,Roland Barthes,Simone de Beauvoir,Philippe Sollers,Patrice Chéreau,Bernard Kouchner,François Châtelet,Gilles Deleuze,Félix Guattari,Jean-Paul Sartre, andJean-François Lyotard.[6]
Notably, the signatories did not includeMichel Foucault,[6]: 16 Marguerite Duras,Hélène Cixous, orXavière Gauthier [fr;sv], who all refused to sign the January petition.[5]
Philippe Sollers later stated in 2001 that "there were so many manifestos, we signed them almost automatically".[7] In 2013, Gabriel Matzneff revealed on his blog that he had written the letter and criticized various signatories which he viewed were erasing or backtracking on their signature.[8]
In May 1977, a petition was signed by 80 French intellectuals,[8] calling for the end of discrimination against homosexual men encoded in the 1945 ordinance.[10] It also asks that the Penal Code Revision Commission (French:Commission de Révision du Code Pénal) review the age of consent and recommend changes to parliament.[10]
The May 1977 petition was signed by a number of prominent French intellectuals, doctors, and psychologists from a wide range of political positions, includingMichel Foucault,Gilles Deleuze,Jacques Derrida,Louis Aragon,Roland Barthes,Louis Althusser,Simone de Beauvoir,Jean-Paul Sartre,Félix Guattari,Michel Leiris,Alain Robbe-Grillet, Philippe Sollers,Jacques Rancière,Jean-François Lyotard,Francis Ponge,Jean Danet,Françoise Dolto,Bernard Besret,[2][10] and Gabriel Matzneff.[8]
On 4 April 1978 a conversation between Michel Foucault, Jean Danet and Guy Hocquenghem detailing the reasons for their positions was broadcast by the radio channelFrance Culture during the programDialogues. In the conversation, which was later republished as"Sexual Morality and the Law" [es;fr;it;pt], the three discussed the petition and concluded that consent as a legal concept is a contractual notion and thus a "trap", saying that "no one makes a contract before making love".[2]
In 1979, a petition was published inLibération, supporting Gérard R., who was arrested for having sexual relations with girls aged six to twelve living at his home.[3][8] The petition argued that the girls were "happy" with the situation.[3] The letter was later reproduced in the paperL'Express, in the issue of 7 March 2001.[11]
In 1982, the French government removed its clauses regarding sodomy and similar acts "against nature" from the 1945 ordinance.[12]
But the publication, last Thursday, of an account by one of his victims, Vanessa Springora, has suddenly fueled an intense debate in France over its historically lax attitude toward sex with minors. It has also shone a particularly harsh light on a period during which some of France's leading literary figures and newspapers — names as big as Foucault,Jean-Paul Sartre, Libération and Le Monde — aggressively promoted the practice as a form of human liberation, or at least defended it.