Fatima Freeman May 2, 2012 LGQ French History 1 As stated by Robert Aldrich (2002) in the article Homosexuality in the

French Colonies is that the links between sexuality and European overseas expansion have attracted increasing attention from historians and other scholars in recent years (Aldrich 2002). They have explored the European encounter with diverse sexual practices in other parts of the world, the sexual opportunities presented by the colonies, the gendered nature of imperialism, the incidence of prostitution, the eroticized images of indigenous people in art and literature, interracial liaisons, and mtissage (Aldrich 2002). Aldrich (2002) also states that many adventurers and explorers came in to contact with some societies where they would participate in homosexual initiation rituals in Melanesia (Aldrich 2002). Therefore, before the French started to colonized many of the lands to became known as a French Colony the societies that occupied the land before the French were already participating in some type of homosexual acts. Especially with the New Imperialism (1880 to 1914) occurred at the same time as the emerge of new forms of same-sex identification: the invention of the world homosexuality, the first movements of homosexual emancipation, and the establishment of modern patterns of homosexual sociability (Aldrich 2002). Europeans overseas in this period sometimes engaged in situational homosexuality, particularly in all-male military battalions, in penal colonies, or on the frontier, which was often marked by a dramatic imbalance in the sex ratio between men and

2 women (Aldrich 2002). Therefore, with the lack of women in many all-male functional occupation, such as the military and women were not allowed to serve in the military, it was probably hard for a man to avoid participating in homosexual acts because of the lack of women been in their presence. Furthermore, with the distance and the time that these men spent away from their wives or the presence of women probably made it difficult for a man not to participate in homosexual acts. With the lack of the opposite sex and many same-sex operated functions were widely known as well as the increasing sociability of homosexual emancipation was probably the cause of the many situational homosexuality (Aldrich 2002). Later Aldrich (2002) states that colonial domination clearly played a role in a liaisons between Europeans and non-Europeans, homosexuals as well as heterosexuals, with Europeans exchanging power, privileges, status and money for sexual favors (Aldrich 2002). Then Aldrich (2002) explains how some of the relationships differed from prostitution or included coercion and violence, yet indigenous men could derive materiel and emotional advantages in the form of income, social promotion, or closer association with the colonial ruling order from partnerships with Europeans (Aldrich 2009). Therefore, it is hard to say that these men did not gain any emotional, affection or love from any of the c of prostitution that was happening between the heterosexual man and the homosexual man (Aldrich 2002). Decriminalization of homosexuality in post-Revolutionary France and its colonies (though various statutes, such as those outlawing any public offense against decency, made it possible to prosecute homosexuals) meant that the records of arrests and trials which have been so revealing elsewhere are less common in France and its domains (Aldrich 2002). In other

3 words the recognition of homosexuality became a more open practice where a homosexual man did not free his life or arrest. Therefore, the homosexual man was more out there in France as well as in the colonies and probably not because he lacked the affection of a woman. The homosexual man started to become more of a social function in France, but homosexuality was probably still looked down upon.

Reference List: Aldrich, Robert 2002 Homosexuality in the French Colonies, Journal of Homosexuality, 41:3-4, 201-218