View source for French age-of-consent may rise - Right-wing pushes homophobic law to raise age for gay sex to 18

As part of an overhaul of the French criminal code, the French Senate voted on May 22 to raise the age of consent for homosexual sex from 15 to 18, and establish criminal penalties for people who transmit HIV through sex. The National Assembly will vote on the proposed changes in mid-June. [...]<br>
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The new age-of-consent law would criminalize sexual relations "practiced without violence, constraint, threat, or surprise" by an adult with a person between 15 and 18 years old, but only when the minor is "of the same sex." In 1982 the age of consent for homo- and hetero-sexual sex was equalized at age 15.<br>
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Deputy Minister of Justice Michel Sapin spoke against the change. "We cannot have a two-tiered system of sexual majority," he told the Senate. "A freedom may not be divided."<br>
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John Clark, co-secretariat of the International Lesbian and Gay Association, told the French gay weekly <i>Gai Pied</i> that the code revisions are "a huge shock. It's unbelievable that this would happen in France while at the same time in Czechoslovakia they're talking about gay marriage and in Austria discriminatory laws are being repealed."<br>
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<i>source: Article 'French Age-of-Consent May Rise - Right-wing pushes homophobic law to raise age for gay sex to 18'; Nambla Bulletin, Vol. 12, No. 5; June 1991</i>

[[Category:France]]
[[Category:Frankrijk]]
[[Category:Age of consent]]
[[Category:Michel Sapin]]
[[Category:John Clark]]
[[Category:ILGA]]
[[Category:Czechoslovakia]]
[[Category:Tsjecho-Slowakije]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Oostenrijk]]
[[Category:Marriage also for gay people]]
[[Category:Huwelijk ook voor homoseksuelen]]