Mois des fiertés : Rencontre-Débat avec Antoine Idier autour du livre "Réprimer et réparer. Une histoire effacée de l'homosexualité"

Drawing on largely untapped police and judicial archives, this book reveals the extent and continuity of the repression of homosexuality in France since the 19th century. Antoine Idier explores the mechanisms of social control while highlighting the role of the state in the persecution of thousands of men and women. But this history is not simply a relic of a past too quickly forgotten.

As a reparations law is being debated in France, following those in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Spain, this book examines the contemporary imperative of justice: how can these past injustices be redressed? Should reparations be limited to criminal convictions or should they encompass all forms of police and administrative violence? Should they be purely symbolic or include financial compensation? This compelling investigation, while exploring the shortcomings of French memory policies, considers the possibility of full recognition and genuine reparations for the victims of this state violence.

Antoine Idier is a lecturer in political science at Sciences Po Saint-Germain-en-Laye and a researcher at the Centre for Sociological Research on Law and Penal Institutions (CESDIP, UMR 8183). His publications include *The Lives of Guy Hocquenghem* (Fayard, 2017), *Archives of LGBT+ Movements* (Textuel, 2018), *Purity and Impurity of Art: Michel Journiac and AIDS* (Sombres torrents, 2020), *Queer Resistance: A History of LGBTQI+ Cultures* (with Pochep, La Découverte/Delcourt, 2023), and *Repress and Repair: An Erased History of Homosexuality* ( Textuel, 2025). He also curated the exhibition *In the Margins: Thirty Years of the Michel Chomarat Collection* at the Lyon Library, held at the Part-Dieu Municipal Library in 2022–2023.