Wounds still open, ten years later. Within the LGBT+ community, the enactment of the Equal Marriage Act is not only a victory, but also a long series of traumas that are hard to forget. In 2013, on the news channels as well as in the columns of the main newspapers, homophobic remarks follow one another and take on as much value as the fights of the main interested parties.
At the time, Rozenn Le Carboulec was a very young journalist for the supplement “Le Plus” of The Obs. Not yet “out” within her editorial staff, the new freelancer began her career in the early hours of the debates on marriage for all. Particularity of the “Plus”: leaving a forum for everyone, every opinion. Wrong? Certainly. In his book The Humiliatedin bookstores on May 3 at Equateurs editionsthe author returns to this violence engendered by the media and political treatment.
“My beginnings in the profession coincided with the questioning of my identity, both by society, but also by the profession in which I aspired to work since at that time on “Le Plus”, we had published several forums of opponents to the bill of adoption and marriage for all”. Among them, Jean-Pier Delaume-Myard, who has become, thanks to the help of the media, the new spokesperson for the opponents of the Manif pour tous.
The Vendée Globe eclipses the pros Marriage for all
Like her editorial staff, and many others, the young journalist was convinced that everyone should have their say… including opponents. “Even if I already felt a contradiction in the fact that the Obs positions itself in favor of marriage for all and that we publish several opinion pieces from the opposition. From now on, Rozenn Le Carboulec recognizes the very great violence of the period linked “to an editorial and ethical contradiction” on the part of his former editorial staff.
Only, it was not the only problem of the Obs in 2013. Non-stop news channels, for example, also missed out. In her book, the author recalls, for example, that iTélé – a channel now replaced by CNews – had promised the same media treatment of pro and anti-law demonstrations. Only, bad luck, the Vendée Globe had finally monopolized the media coverage on the day of the mobilization of the main concerned, the LGBT + community.
“They were talking about concepts, we were talking about fundamental rights”
On the cobblestones, the violence suffered is also not insignificant. For Charles Roncier, also a journalist, but specialized in the scientific field this time, the importance of the mobilizations in opposition had not been imagined upstream. Not to this point at least. “We were expecting a lot from the wedding and what caught our attention at the time was above all the reactionary mobilization that took place,” he recalls. Before adding: “It was a weird moment because we thought that the debate would pass super easily, that there was a majority on the left. We had misjudged how it was going to be reused, especially on the rights of the child. »
An opposition overrepresented and monopolized by the Church which also marked Charles Roncier. “It was really those who are against, those who are for… whereas we were talking about people’s rights which in essence are not negotiable. We talked about our lives, our loves, the people we lived with, the construction of our life projects. And they were talking about a completely delusional fantasy of people being politically instrumentalized to prevent social progress. Surprisingly, at the time, opponents will also ask him to be better listened to, to no longer be harassed for their opinion. “While we were not only defending our cause, but our life. They were talking about concepts, we were talking about fundamental rights. »
The difficult assignment to the margin
Beyond the over-represented opposition among politicians and in the media, the absence of allies has been another trauma for some. This is the case of Charles Roncier who admits to having done a light spring cleaning following the debates. “The people who weren’t really involved – the so-called allies, our relatives and our families – who had no problem and were already starting to talk about marriage did not understand why it put us in this state”, regrets- he. There would even have been a kind of subpoena at the margin. “Even kind people were telling us, ‘You don’t need that’, ‘you’re already revolutionary’, ‘you don’t need to imitate straight people’. But the problem was not just getting married, but finally having a choice.
For the journalist, the remarks on the presence of Pacs were also inappropriate. “No, but you have the PACS, you don’t need marriage”, we often repeat to him. “It was a bit of the elements taken over to test us. Every test, every shrug, “it’s not that bad”, it was an injury. It’s as if they were telling us “I confirm that I consider that your couple is not equal to mine”. »
The leap of homophobic acts
In addition, the debates also led to numerous attacks on the LGBT+ community. In 2013, homophobic acts jumped 78% in France calculated the annual report of the association SOS Homophobia. Both on the Internet and on the streets, uninhibited homophobia was spreading. “A few months later, I was also attacked with a group of friends. There was clearly this thing of “Ah but anyway, leave them. You know we can’t touch them”. There was a bitterness, as if our statutes had changed, recalls Charles Roncier, and that our new law had taken something away from these people. “If Rozenn Le Carboulec admits for her part to have been protected by her relatives, she does not forget the ambient homophobia of the time. “No one measured how violent it was for LGBT+ people. No one points to the vastly underestimated trauma. »
Ten years later, the media and politicians half-acknowledge their faults. Solutions have since been found, including the creation of the association of LGBT journalists (AJL) motivated by the post-debate shock around marriage for all. But today it’s hard not to imagine a link with the current media treatment topics around transidentities. “We find the same mechanisms: invisibilization of the people concerned, equivalence of points of view with expertise “everything is worth””, compares Rozenn Le Cabourlec. Charles Roncier even admits that this observation causes him a kind of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). “I notice that we hadn’t learned anything and that minorities are still exposed. »
