A Queer Uprising 60 Years Before Stonewall: The 1905 Les Douaires Riot
In the early 1900s, Les Douaires, a youth detention colony in Normandy, France, housed an increasing number of boys over the age of 16. Rumors circulated about frequent sexual interactions among the detained boys.
The 1969 Stonewall riot is widely recognized as a pivotal moment in the western LGBTQ+ rights movement, marking a bold resistance to a police raid. Today, Pride events every June commemorate this historic uprising. However, Stonewall was not the first queer rebellion.
Recent research, published in the Journal of Homosexuality, reveals an earlier queer uprising in 1905, more than six decades before Stonewall, at a youth detention site in France.
Queer Life in 19th-Century France
During the 19th century, a covert queer scene emerged around Parisian bars and brothels. Same-sex relationships were also common within single-gender institutions such as the military and prisons, despite social disapproval. Toward the late 1800s, anxieties about queer sexualities grew, and such identities were increasingly pathologized as medical disorders.
Youth Penal Colonies and Same-Sex Relationships
Same-sex relationships became widespread in certain French youth penal colonies. These institutions incarcerated working-class youths aged 8 to 21, often for vagrancy or theft, confining them from months to years. The boys were subjected to harsh agricultural and industrial labor.
Les Douaires was one such youth penal colony in northern France, specifically for detained boys.
"The 1969 Stonewall riot, a pivotal episode of LGBTQ+ resistance to a police raid, was a turning point in the western gay rights movement."
"My recent research, published in the Journal of Homosexuality, uncovered a queer uprising which took place in 1905, more than 60 years before Stonewall, at a youth detention site in France."
Author’s summary: A 1905 queer uprising at Les Douaires youth detention site in France predates Stonewall by over 60 years, revealing early resistance within harsh penal institutions.