ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. Over the past three decades, France has witnessed an explosion of cultural praxes that correspond to an alleged globalized and largely Anglo-American tradition of gay-identity politics of the post-Stonewall era. Queer French examines the tensions between Anglo-American and French articulations of homosexuality and sexual citizenship as they emerge in various contemporary French popular culture genres. During the last two decades, French leaders have worked diligently with those of other European countries on internal market policy issues including unemployment, competition, free movement, economic and monetary union, and European citizenship. The French language does not lose its status in the project of French sexual citizenship, but in fact, is enhanced in this global battle over culture, language and identity. French gays and lesbians began to gain political visibility under the Socialist-led left government of Mitterrand who decriminalized homosexuality in 1982.
