With the appointment of Gabriel Attal as Prime Minister on January 9th, French President Emmanuel Macron has regained the boldness and surprise ability of bygone times. At 34, Attal is the youngest prime minister of the Fifth Republic. That was the news in the French and international press. But he is also the first openly homosexual. And although this second circumstance appeared prominently in some international headlines (particularly in the United States), it hardly accounted for a few articles in France. Neither he highlighted it in his first speech – yes, his youth – nor his allies and opponents.
The news was that it wasn't news. And there are several reasons for that. Attal doesn't hide the fact that he is homosexual, but he doesn't hide it either. He is not an activist. Another reason is that the media in this country is rather reserved when it comes to dealing with private life. A kind of right to indifference is practiced, which means that the politician's sexual orientation is not relevant. And it's not the first. There are precursors in Luxembourg, Ireland and Belgium. There are ministers, mayors… It may seem almost banal. The fact that this is not news, just like the fact that a homosexual is in power in France, would be the true sign that society is evolving. As if it didn't matter anymore.
“Everyone is happy when the first black president of the United States or the first female prime minister is elected. Then why shouldn’t we say “the first gay?” asks Frédéric Martel, author of books like “The Pink and the Black”. Homosexuals in France since 1968 and gay worldwide. The Long March of Homosexuals. “He's not very important politically, and he wasn't mentioned for that,” he admits. “But it has a symbolic effect. “Every young person who is 13, 14, 15, 16 years old today and has a bad experience with homosexuality will at least feel less alone as a result of this information, and that is positive.”
The organization SOS Homophobia celebrated that “homosexuality is no longer an obstacle to the performance of priority functions.” In a message on the social network the company calls on you to combat violence against LGBTBI people and ensure equal rights. In the publication Manifesto Day Marine Le Pen [líder de la extrema derecha francesa] “She will be the first woman president.”
Some have pointed out as a contradiction that the new Attal government includes ministers such as the head of labor, health and solidarity, the conservative Catherine Vautrin, who took part in the demonstrations against gay marriage a decade ago. The Médiapart newspaper titled a long article about Attal: “The Prime Minister is gay, but not very much.” He was criticized for his activism for not being a militant. Martel comments: “I think people have the right to reveal their homosexuality or not.” He adds: “And you are not obliged to be a gay activist. “Homosexuality does not sum up the whole of life.”
Attal's homosexuality became public in 2019. The person responsible for the outing, who revealed it against his will, was an intimate enemy, the lawyer Juan Branco, in his book entitled Twilight. Both shared classrooms at the elite Alsatian school in Paris and at the institute for political studies, the renowned Sciences Po. Attal, the then Secretary of State for Youth, confirmed this in an interview with Libération. And in Closer magazine he explained: “When it comes to homosexuality, I've always thought you could assume it without asserting it.” I wonder if wearing it as a flag wouldn't help make it unusual. Two years later, Le Monde published a report on his relationship with Stéphane Séjourné, a close colleague of Macron and former leader of the liberal group in the European Parliament.
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While he rose in politics (government spokesman, public finance minister, head of the education department…), his private life was not a topic of interest. It wasn't even mentioned. Until last November, in an interview with the channel TF1 about his plans against bullying, he explained that as a teenager he had suffered homophobic insults from another student at the Alsatian school: “I went to the cinema with a girl he liked.” That day he said to me: “I'm going to destroy you.” “At that point it was a suspected sexual orientation because I didn't talk about it.” He didn't give the stalker's name, but it was understood he was referring to Branco, the author of Twilight. The X Network's Branco said that wasn't true.
In the Médiapart article mentioned above, sociologist Hugo Bouvard analyzes Attal's approach when he made his homosexuality public. He thinks it's very French: “Gay politicians in France have a double duty: they must not hide it, because dissembling would be seen as a lack of transparency and put them at risk of coming out.” But one should neither claim it, nor be ostentatious because it is stigmatized. Attal assumes it without claiming it. “He doesn't hide, but he remains discreet.” So discreet that it took his appointment as prime minister and his former partner Séjourné as foreign minister to make it known that they had separated “two years ago,” as Le Figaro and other media outlets have published it, citing the “environment” of the second.
Attal's youth was commented on from both sides. As he recalled at the handover ceremony with his predecessor Élisabeth Borne (62), the youngest president – when Macron arrived at the Elysée he was 39 years old – had just appointed the youngest prime minister. “A symbol of boldness and movement,” Attal said. The combined age of Macron and Attal is 80 years, one less than that of US President Joe Biden. France as a counterweight to American gerontocracy? The paradox, according to Le Figaro, is that this rejuvenation is taking place in an aging country. According to the polls, pensioners are the main source of votes for Macronism.
Although less relevant today than Attal's age, the implications of his sexual orientation go beyond anecdote, according to essayist Martel: “For someone of my generation – I remember the time when I was a political activist and gay, when we all had pseudonyms “and we met in bars to avoid doing this in college in the late 1980s – an openly gay prime minister was unthinkable back then.” Martel concludes The Pink and the Black with a chronology detailing the milestones in the history of homosexuals in France. “I'm not saying their policies will be good or not, that's a different debate,” he says. “But the symbol, whether you like it or not, is there. It has gone down in history. He is the first openly gay French Prime Minister. In the new edition of my book it will appear in the chronology with the date January 9th.”
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