France falls short on LGBTQ+ inclusion despite victories

From a legal standpoint, France seems like a welcoming place for LGBTQ+ people. Same-sex marriage and adoption are legal, and lesbian couples can access IVF to start a family.

Look a little deeper, however, and many issues still exist.

Doina Craciun is a volunteer with Mémoires Queer, the association behind Queer Tours France. Billed as France’s only private LGBTQ+ tour company, it showcases the city’s rich and complex history, spotlighting overlooked LGBTQ+ figures.

“The idea was to make visible all these people we don’t usually talk about, and to talk about the history of LGBTQ+ rights, and really bring all that back into the history of the city,” she said.

On a legal basis, France has clearly made progress.

“We’ve seen legislative evolution that is very positive – being gay has changed from being something that was punishable by the death penalty (until 1791), to something that is permitted in law,” Ms Craciun said.

France legalised same-sex marriage and adoption in 2013, extended access to IVF to lesbian couples and single women in 2021, and introduced protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation in the 1980s and gender identity in 2012.

“That’s the legal framework overall, but in real life things are not necessarily that positive,” Ms Craciun said.

Public safety

A Eurobarometer survey published in 2023 showed that while acceptance of LGBTQ+ people is rising across the European Union, 54% of French respondents said discrimination based on sexual orientation was “very widespread”, rising to 57% for transgender people.

“Even in big cities, you can still have moments where LGBTQ+ people don’t feel safe, you still have people who are attacked in the street,” said Ms Craciun.

There were 4,800 anti-LGBTQ+ offences reported in France in 2024, the latest interior ministry figures show, up 5% from 2023. The rise was particularly pronounced between 2016 and 2023, at an average of 15% annually.

In its 2025 report, based on incidents recorded in 2024, the LGBTQ+ support organisation SOS homophobie warned of growing homophobia linked to the rise of reactionary and far-right politics in France.

It noted a “normalisation of hate speech in the media and on social media, in a context of political polarisation of the media landscape towards the far right”.

This is something Ms Craciun has also noticed.

“Maybe before, they might have believed these things but they couldn’t say them out loud. And now, because the far right is doing very well in parliament and they have a lot of media, it makes people feel they can speak more freely than before.”

Despite the legal rights gained, more work is needed for LGBTQ+ people to feel safe.

“We need to fight for better police; when trans people are in contact with police as victims of violence, they tend to be treated the worst. We need to improve access to justice for everyone, but I think trans people are among the communities that are treated worst.”

France should also do more when it comes to education, she said.

“The government definitely needs to invest in educating all sorts of actors for LGBTQ+ people to have a more relaxed life and not to be attacked. Improving education in schools, in the police service, in workplaces, in hospitals, at all levels of society.”

One major issue for trans people is the difficulty of changing their gender on ID documents.

“It is quite easy to change your name, but changing your gender is complicated and one of the biggest changes the trans community is campaigning for.”

Progress

While France has become more open-minded – due in large part to greater LGBTQ+ visibility in public life, on TV and in films – Ms Craciun would “rank it very poorly compared with the UK, Belgium, Germany, Spain”.

She said: “France is not among the most open-minded countries.”

Authorities, she explained, believe that once rights are enshrined in law, they can ignore certain issues.

“It’s the same for racism – a sort of denial. ‘We don’t need to talk about these things because those rights have been won.’ They claim France is not a racist country and France is not an LGBTQ+-phobic country. But I don’t agree with this; in my experience it’s false discourse.”

In 2024, France joined a growing number of Western European countries to have an openly gay prime minister, when Gabriel Attal took office.

“I think that’s the government’s way of saying: ‘Look, we have an openly gay prime minister so don’t tell us we’re not fighting for LGBTQ+ rights.’ In fact, it’s also a way of pushing their view that there’s no homophobia, we don’t need to address that.”

What advice does Ms Craciun have for same-sex couples moving to France?

“Join organisations that are still fighting to preserve rights and gain rights that we don’t yet have. Come to the protests, support the organisations and keep your eyes open.”

Are you LGBTQ? How safe and inclusive do you find life in France? Let us know at letters@connexionfrance.com