"and what then about "our" problem?"

gay liberation in the occupied Sorbonne in May 1968

Michael Sibalis

pp. 122-136

in: Julian Jackson, Anna-Louise Milne, James Williams (eds), May 68, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011

Abstract

"It is forbidden of forbid" is one of its most famous catchphrases; no wonder May 68 is often held responsible for the sexual revolution in France in the 1960s and 1970s. Henri Mendras, for example, describes the main consequences of May 68 as an undermining of respect for authority and a broadening of people's sense of individualism, which transformed both sexual behaviour and public attitudes towards sex.¹ In fact, of course, the sexual revolution was "already widespread and tolerated in France" before May 68.² Even so, "the events of May 1968 in France played the role of a powerful catalyst, in blowing the lid off puritanism and an outdated moral order."³ This moral order included the stigmatization of homosexuality, despite the fact that homosexual relations between consenting adults had been fully legal in France since 1791.⁴