AMBUSHES, INVISIBLE CRIMES

They are humiliated, beaten, sometimes killed, in the greatest silence. Every week, in France, a homosexual is lured into a trap. These ambushes, symptoms of a visceral homophobia, have not disappeared. Mediapart offers you an exceptional documentary on this phenomenon, forty years after the decriminalization of homosexuality in our country.

Beating homosexuals to steal or humiliate them. And, sometimes, to kill them. This violence, these crimes, still exist in the France of 2023. For months, Sarah Brethes, Mathieu Magnaudeix and David Perrotin, journalists at MEDIAPARTIn the course of their work, they have immersed themselves in judicial files, met with victims of these traps, but also interviewed their aggressors, who testify to a visceral homophobia rooted in society. These aggressions, these crimes often remain invisible because they are often treated as news, but also because the victims do not file a complaint, very often out of shame.

There are no statistics on this violence. By compiling the press and the archives of LGBTQI+ associations, the co-directors have counted at least 300 victims of homophobic violence over the past five years, the vast majority of them gay or bisexual men. One victim per week.

For the year 2022, the figure is even one victim every three days. However, this figure is far lower than the reality, because despite the appearance of greater acceptance of homosexuality in society, many victims remain silent, fearing that their sexuality will be known.

The film also questions the role of institutions, police and justice, in the fight against homophobia. In a country where homosexuality was decriminalized in 1982, how do the police deal with the victims of these traps? Is the aggravating circumstance of homophobia, which entered the penal code in 2004, well understood by magistrates? Why has the justice system only pronounced 11 convictions for homophobic ambushes in the last four years?

Pride Marseille is offering an exceptional screening of this shocking and indispensable documentary, followed by a conference-debate with the Mediapart team, the French Association of LGBT+ Lawyers and SOS homophobia.

Reservation directly at the box office of the cinema La Baleine.

A Mediapart documentary by Sarah Brethes, Mathieu Magnaudeix and David Perrotin. Duration 65 minutes.

Sarah Brethes is a journalist at Mediapart's investigation department. She has worked for Agence France-Presse, notably in the social news department, then as a reporter based in Seine-Saint-Denis.

Mathieu Magnaudeix is co-head of Mediapart's video division and former Mediapart correspondent in the United States.

David Perrotin is a journalist at Mediapart's society division and investigates discrimination. He previously worked for the online media Loopsider.