- Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire
The front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire (English: "Homosexual Front for Revolutionary Action" [ cite book | last = Raymond | first = Gino G. | coauthors = Alistair Cole | title = Redefining the French Republic | year = 2006 | publisher = Manchester University Press | isbn = 071907150X | pages = 84 ] ) (FHAR) was a loose
Paris ian movement founded in 1971cite book | last = Ross | first = Kristin | title = May '68 and Its Afterlives | year = 2002 | publisher = University of Chicago Press | isbn = 0226727971 | pages = 217 ] , resulting from a rapprochement between lesbian feminists and gay activists. If the movement could be considered to have leaders, they wereGuy Hocquenghem andFrançoise d'Eaubonne , while other members includedChristine Delphy ,Daniel Guérin , andLaurent Dispot . It had disappeared by 1976.The FHAR are known for having given radical visibility to homosexuals during the 1970s in the wake of student and proletarian uprisings of 1968, which had given little space to the liberation of women and homosexuals. Breaking with older homosexual groups which were more hidden and sometimes conservative, they asserted the subversion of the
bourgeois and hetero-patriarchal state , as well as the inversion of chauvinistic andhomophobic values common of the left andextreme left .The outrageous aspect (vis-à-vis the authorities) of the male sexual encounters which were held, and the increasing prevalence of the men (which inevitably gradually obscured the feminist questions and lesbian voices), eventually brought about the group's disintegration. In its wake appeared the Groupe de libération homosexuelle (GLH) and the
Gouines rouges within theMouvement de libération des femmes (MLF).Birth and beginning
The group was originally formed by an alliance of feminists of the MLF and lesbians coming from the association
Arcadie , who were joined by homosexuals in February 1971. But the trigger would be a poster of "Comité d'action pédérastique révolutionnaire" (English: "Committee of Revolutionary Pederastic Action") posted at theSorbonne during May 1968. The group organized meetings at theÉcole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.On the 5th March, 1971, the group interrupted a meeting against the right of
abortion , [ [http://semgai.free.fr/doc_et_pdf/pdf_these_articles_externes/roussel.pdf "Le mouvement homosexuel français face aux stratégies identitaires"] par Yves Roussel.] , and on the 10th March it attracted public attention by disturbing and stopping a broadcast ofMénie Gregoire on the topic of the homosexuality being broadcast on Radio Luxembourg. [ [http://www.france.qrd.org/media/revue-h/001/probleme.html Retranscription de l'émission] and [http://www.prochoix.org/pdf/fahr.pdf témoignages] andFrançoise d'Eaubonne and Marie-Jo Bonnet.]The name which they gave themselves, "Front Homosexuel d'Action Révolutionnaire", reduced to
initialism FHAR, was nevertheless registered officially as "Fédération Humaniste Anti-Raciste". [Frédéric Martel, "Le Rose et le noir", édition du Seuil, 1996.] The group also communicated through the leftist newspaper, "Tout". It asserted thesexual freedom of all individuals. A declaration refers toManifeste des 343 salopes (English: Proclamation of the 343 sluts): [cite web
url=http://semgai.free.fr/contenu/archives/Tout/TOUT12.html
title=Tout! N°12
accessdate=2007-05-22
author=
last=
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date=1971-04-23
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work=Tout!
publisher=
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language=French
doi=
archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20060420182102/http://semgai.free.fr/contenu/archives/Tout/TOUT12.html
archivedate=2006-04-20
quote=]In the quote faits is a misspelling for "fait" and fiers, a misspelling for "fières".
This work was seized by the
police , and the director of publication,Jean-Paul Sartre , was prosecuted. However, the FHAR dropped in on the Constitutional Council to declare the attacks onfreedom of expression unconstitutional, and in July 1971 the investigation was stopped.FHAR denounced
heterosexism and themedicalization of homosexuality. In 1971, they disturbed the international Congress ofsexology inSan Remo . They also intervened in communist political meetings, in particular withMutualité whereJacques Duclos said to them: "Allez vous faire soigner, bande de pédérastes, le PCF est sain!" [Pierre Albertini, « Communisme », "Dictionnaire de l'homophobie", PUF, 2003.] (English: Go get yourself cured, you band of pederasts; the PCF is healthy!)Dissension
The growing power of men in the group led many women of the FHAR to break off, forming the
Gouines rouges splinter group in June 1971 ("gouines" is slang French for "Lesbian"), with the aim of fighting more againstsexism and itmale chauvinism /androcracy . [cite book | editor = Robert F. Aldrich, Garry Wotherspoon | title = Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History: From World War II to Present Day | url = | accessdate = 2007-05-22 | series = Gender Studies | year = 2001 | publisher = Routledge | isbn = 041522974X | pages = 47 ]Other groups became conspicuous:
Gazolines , the newspapers "Fléau social" and "Antinorm" [ [http://semgai.free.fr/contenu/archives/antinorm/antinorm_1.html Extraits d’"Antinorm"] ] . They still published a "Rapport contre la normalité" in 1971 and one thick special number of the review "Research " directed byFelix Guattari in 1973.All these groups were, however, recognized under the slogans of the FHAR ("Prolétaires de tous les pays, caressez-vous !" / "Workers of the world, caress yourselves!" ("caressez-vous" also being a French slang expression meaning "to masturbate") , "Lesbiennes et pédés, arrêtons de raser les murs !" / "Lesbians and fags, let us stop keeping a low profile") and the fight against the "hétéro-flics" (hetero-cops). [cite journal | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Prolétaires de tous les pays, caressez-vous! | journal = Gulliver | volume = 1 | issue = | pages = | publisher = | month = November | year = 1972 | url =http://semgai.free.fr/doc_et_pdf/Gulliver_nov72.pdf | doi = | id = | accessdate = |format=PDF]
Decline and posterity
Members of the group started to leave:
Daniel Guerin because of excesses byGazolines on the occasion of the burial of a Maoist killed by a vigilante in 1972, but alsoFrancoise d' Eaubonne , who saw it as no longer anything but a place for flirting.The police banned the meetings at the école des Beaux-Arts in February 1974, and FHAR gave up its spectacular actions.
The FHAR has descendants. Its claims, quite different from the call for social tolerance by the group
Arcadie , were followed by homosexual associations and groups in the 1980s, such asUniversités d’été euroméditerranéennes des homosexualités and Comité d'urgence anti-répression homosexuelle (CUARH) in 1979, or the magazine "Gai pied ".The movement's radicalism and high politicisation were also taken up by
LGBT movements in the 1990s, inspiring in part the currentqueer movement inthe United States of America andFrance . [Le Zoo, "Q comme queer", Lille, GKC, 1998.]References
See also
Filmography
* "FHAR" (1971), a 26 minute black and white documentary of the first meetings and demonstrations of the FHAR, by Carole Roussopoulos
* "Race d'Ep , Un siècle d'image de l'homosexualité" (1979),docudrama byLionel Soukaz andGuy Hocquenghem
* "Bleu, blanc, rose" (2000), documentary byYves Jeuland on the French gay movement
* "My Super 8 SeasonMa saison super 8 " (2005), directed byAlessandro Avellis (2005), a drama inspired by the FHAR
* "The revolution of desireLa révolution du désir " (2006), documentary directed byAlessandro Avellis Bibliography
Stemming from FHAR
* [http://semgai.free.fr/contenu/archives/Tout/TOUT12.html « Libre disposition de notre corps »] , "Tout", n° 12, 23 avril 1971.
* FHAR, "Rapport contre la normalité", Paris, Champ libre, 1971.
* [http://www.criticalsecret.com/n8/quer/4per/ Dossier « Trois milliards de pervers. Grande encyclopédie des homosexualités »] , "Recherches", mars 1973.On the FHAR
* Jacques Girard, "Le Mouvement homosexuel en France, 1945-1981", Paris, Syros, 1981.
* "Masques, revue des Homosexualités", n°9/10, Paris, 1981.* Françoise d'Eaubonne, « Le FHAR, origines et illustration », "la Revue h", n° 2, 1996.
* Didier Eribon, « FHAR », "Dictionnaire des cultures gays et lesbiennes", Larousse, 2003.
* Michael Sibalis, [http://www.h-france.net/rude/2005conference/Sibalis2.pdf « Gay Liberation Comes to France: The Front Homosexuel d’Action Révolutionnaire (FHAR) »] , "French History and Civilization", 2005.Internal links
*
New social movements
*LGBT social movements
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