France has an openly gay prime minister. And it's not news

By appointing Gabriel Attal as prime minister on January 9, French President Emmanuel Macron recovered the audacity and ability to surprise of yesteryear. Attal, at 34, 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 gay. And this second circumstance, although it appeared prominently in some international headlines (especially in the United States), in France it barely merited a few articles. Neither did he highlight it in his first speech – yes, however, his youth – nor did he highlight his allies and opponents.

The news was that it was not news. And this has several reasons. Attal does not hide that he is homosexual, but he does not make a big deal about it either. He is not an activist. Another reason is that the media, in this country, tend to be cautious when dealing with private life. A kind of right to indifference is practiced that leads to considering that the sexual orientation of the politician is not relevant. And he is not the first. There are antecedents in Luxembourg, Ireland or Belgium. There are ministers, mayors… It may seem almost banal. That it is not news, more than the fact that a homosexual governs France, would be the true sign that society is moving forward. As if it didn't matter anymore.

“Everyone is happy when the first black president in the United States or the first female prime minister is elected. Why, then, wouldn't we be able to say 'the first gay'?” asks Frédéric Martel, author of books such as The pink and the black. Homosexuals in France since 1968 and Global gay. The long march of homosexuals. “Politically, he is not very important, and he has not been named for that,” he admits. “But it has a symbolic effect. Any young person who today is 13, 14, 15, 16 years old, and who experiences his homosexuality badly, at least this information will make him feel less alone, and it is positive.

The SOS Homophobie organization has celebrated that “being homosexual is no longer an obstacle to the exercise of first-rank functions.” In a message on the social network The entity asks you to combat violence against LGTBI people and guarantee equal rights. In the publication Manifesto XXILéane Alestra and Apolline Bazin, critics of Macron from the left, go further: “It is no reason for pride that Attal is the first gay prime minister, in the same way that we will feel ashamed if one day Marine Le Pen [líder de la extrema derecha francesa] “She becomes 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 Solidarities, the conservative Catherine Vautrin, who a decade ago participated in the demonstrations against gay marriage. The newspaper Mediapart titled a long article about Attal: “The Prime Minister is gay, but not by much.” He has been criticized, from activism, for not being a militant. Martel comments: “I think people have the right to expose or not expose their homosexuality.” He adds: “And you are not obliged to be gay militant. “Homosexuality does not sum up one's entire life.”

Attal's homosexuality became public in 2019. The person responsible for the outingwho revealed it against his will, was an intimate enemy, the lawyer Juan Branco, in his book titled Twilight. Both had shared classrooms at the elitist Alsatian School in Paris and at the Institute of Political Studies, the prestigious Sciences Po. Attal, then Secretary of State for Youth, confirmed this in an interview with Liberation. And in the magazine Closer, declared: “As far as homosexuality is concerned, I have always considered that it could be assumed without claiming it. I wonder if carrying it as a flag wouldn't contribute to making it an abnormal thing.” Two years later, Le Monde published a report on his relationship with Stéphane Séjourné, a close collaborator of Macron and until now leader of the liberal group in the European Parliament.

While he rose in politics (Government spokesperson, Minister of Public Accounts, head of Education…), his private life was not a topic of interest. He wasn't even mentioned. Until last November, in an interview with the TF1 network about his plans against bullying, explained that, as a teenager, he suffered homophobic insults from another student at the Alsatian School: “I went to the cinema with a girl he liked. That day he told me: 'I will destroy you.' It was about an assumed sexual orientation, at this time, because he did not talk about it.” He did not name the harasser, but it was understood that he was referring to Branco, the author of twilight. Branco, on the X network, said it was not true.

In the aforementioned article by Mediapartsociologist Hugo Bouvard analyzes the modus operandi of Attal when making his homosexuality public. He considers that he is very French: “Gay politicians in France have a double obligation: not to hide it, because dissimulation would be seen as a lack of transparency, and would expose the outing. But neither should you claim it, nor be ostentatious, because it is stigmatized. Attal assumes it without claiming it. He doesn't hide, but he stays discreet.” So discreet that it took him to be appointed prime minister, and his former common-law partner, Séjourné, foreign minister, for it to be known that “two years ago” they broke up, as they have published The Figaro and other media citing the “environment” of the second.

Attal's youth has been commented on 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. Added together, the ages of Macron and Attal equal 80 years, one less than that of the president of the United States, Joe Biden. France as a counterweight to the American gerontocracy? The paradox, according to Le Figaro, is that this rejuvenation takes place in an aging country. The main source of votes for macronism are retirees, according to the polls.

Although it is less relevant today than Attal's age, the impact of his sexual orientation goes beyond the anecdote, according to the essayist Martel: “For someone of my generation—I remember when I was a political activist and gay, when we all had pseudonyms and we met in bars so as not to do so in college in the late 1980s—an openly gay prime minister was then unimaginable.” Martel concludes the book The pink and the black with a chronology that brings together the milestones in the histor
y of homosexuals in France. “I'm not saying their policy is going to be right or not, this is another debate,” he says. “But the symbol, whether you like it or not, is there. It has entered History. He is the first openly gay French prime minister. In the reissue of my book, it will be in the chronology with the date of January 9.”

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