From Universalism to Post-universalism: the PaCS and Beyond

Abstract

The PaCS has been a positive development for many lesbians and gays in France. On social, cultural, political and pragmatic levels, it has afforded gays recognition, protection, rights and a platform on which to negotiate new gay-friendly legislation. It is important therefore that complacency and lack of strategic foresight do not undermine these advances, particularly when lesbians and gays appear divided over how their interests are best served within the framework of republican universalism. On the one hand, the pragmatic benefits of the PaCS find a natural home within a tolerant, invisible and indifferent universalism. On the other hand, the nature of the universalist model raises concerns for some gays about normalisation, heteronormative conformism and sexual identity. This article outlines the context for a rapprochement between the socio-political progress advanced by the PaCS and a radical critique of progress expressed in forms of vigilance, resistance and subversion. Tactics borrowed from civil disobedience protests and the use of spectacle will also be explored as part of a new ‘strategic practicality’ for post-PaCS gay activism.

Notes

[1] In my recent book The Gay Republic: Citizenship, Sexuality and Subversion in France, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2005, I also view the PaCS and the changes it has ushered in as the beginning of a new questioning of the republic's cherished principles of universalism, ‘la différence des sexes’, heterosexuality (its derivatives of heteroisation and heteronormativity), and the separation of the private/public binary.

[2] According to the INED website (www.ined.fr/population-en-chiffres), the numbers of ‘pacsés’ has risen from 6.139 in 1999 to 39.576 in 2005, with 7.0 to 6.935 ‘dissolutions’ respectively. In 1999, the number of marriages was recorded at 289.19, falling to 259.400 by the beginning of 2005. Conversely, the divorce rate has increased from 116.813 in 1999 to 125.175 in 2004.

[3] In recent surveys conducted in 2004 by Le Figaro Magazine and Têtu respectively, 50% of Figaro respondents were in favour of gay marriage with 43% against (TNS Sources SOFRES), and 57% of Têtu respondents were in favour of gay marriage (Source IPSOS).

[4] Eric Fassin also uses this phrase in a wider campaign to promote greater political equivalence between heterosexuality and homosexuality.

[5] I discount the practice of ‘outing’ as spectacle in this context. While approved as a strategy of vengeance by ACT-Up on those who publicly condoned homophobia in the late 1990s, strategists and PaCS activists have since revised their thinking on its validity, let alone effectiveness.