In 1977, a petition was addressed to the

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calling for the abrogation of several articles of the age of consent law. The primary argument behind the petition was the disparity in age of consent created by a previous piece of legislation, which made heterosexual sex legal at the age of 15, but prohibited sodomy and similar acts until age 18. A number of French

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s—including Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida,

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Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popula ...

, Simone de Beauvoir,

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and lit ...

Félix Guattari Pierre-Félix Guattari ( , ; 30 April 1930 – 29 August 1992) was a French psychoanalyst, political philosopher, semiotician, social activist, and screenwriter. He co-founded schizoanalysis with Gilles Deleuze, and ecosophy with Arne Næs ...

Michel Leiris Julien Michel Leiris (; 20 April 1901 in Paris – 30 September 1990 in Saint-Hilaire, Essonne) was a French surrealist writer and ethnographer. Part of the Surrealist group in Paris, Leiris became a key member of the College of Sociology with ...

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Philippe Sollers Philippe Sollers (; born Philippe Joyaux; 28 November 1936) is a French writer and critic. In 1960 he founded the ''avant garde'' literary journal '' Tel Quel'' (along with writer and art critic Marcelin Pleynet), which was published by Le S ...

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, and various prominent doctors and psychologists—signed the

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. In 1979 two open letters were published in French newspapers defending individuals arrested under charges of

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, in the context of reformation of age of consent laws.

Background

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. This was perceived by activists, including Michel Foucault and Guy Hocquenghem, as being discriminatory against gay men. Michel Foucault argued that it is intolerable to assume that a minor is incapable of giving meaningful consent to sexual relations. 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 Foucault, Sartre, and newspapers such as '' Libération'' and ''

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'' each defended the idea of sexual relationships with minors.

The petition

Michel Foucault stated that the petition was signed by himself, by the novelist/gay activist Guy Hocquenghem, the actor/play-writer/jurist

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, pediatrician and child psychoanalyst

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and also by people belonging to a wide range of political positions.''Sexual Morality and the Law'', Chapter 16 of ''Politics, Philosophy, Culture –Interviews and Other Writings 1977-1984''. Edited by Lawrence D. Krizman. New York/London: 1990,

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, , p.275 The main body of the text calls for the end of discrimination against homosexual men encoded in the 1945 ordinance. It then calls for a commission called the Commission de Révision du Code Pénal (Penal Code Revision Commission) to review the age of consent and recommend changes to parliament. The petition also explicitly addresses the 'Affaire de Versailles', where three adult men, Dejager (age 45), Gallien (age 43), and Burckhardt (age 39) had sexual intercourse with minors from both genders aged 12-13. On April 4, 1978, a conversation detailing the reasons for their positions was broadcast by radio

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in the program "''Dialogues''". The participants, Michel Foucault, Jean Danet and Guy Hocquenghem, had all signed the 1977 petition, along with other intellectuals. They argued the idea of legal consent is a contractual notion and a "trap", saying that "no one makes a contract before making love". The conversation has been published as and later reprinted as "''The Danger of Child Sexuality''".

Publication of open letters

An open letter signed by 69 people, including

, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze,

, and

was published in ''

'' in 1977, on the eve of the trial of three Frenchmen (Bernard Dejager, Jean-Claude Gallien, and Jean Burckardt) all accused of having sex with 12- and 13-year-old girls and boys. Two of them had then been in temporary custody since 1973 and the letter referred to this fact as scandalous. The letter claimed there was a disproportion between the qualification of their acts as a crime and the nature of the reproached acts, and also a contradiction since adolescents in France were fully responsible for their acts from the age of 13. The text also opined that if 13-year-old girls in France had the right to receive the

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, then they also should be able to consent, arguing for the right of "13- and 12-year-olds" "to have relations with whomever they choose." A similar letter was published in the paper '' Libération'' in 1979, supporting Gérard R., an accused child sex criminal awaiting his trial for eighteen months, signed by 63 persons, stating that Gérard R. lived with young girls aged 6 to 12 and that they were happy with the situation. The letter was later reproduced in the paper '' L'Express'', in the issue of March 7, 2001.

Legacy

In 1982, the French government removed its clauses regarding sodomy and similar acts "against nature" from the 1945 ordinance.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:French Petitions Against Age Of Consent Laws Political history of France Age of consent Sex laws Law of France Pedophile advocacy Petitions 1977 in France 1977 documents

Background

The petition

Publication of open letters

Legacy

See also

References