Geneviève Pastre (20 November 1924 – 17 February 2012) was a French poet, academic and lesbian activist. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]} She has been described as "responsible in a large measure for the creation of the Gay Liberation Movement in France", although she said of herself: "Je ne suis pas une activiste. Je suis poéte et danseuse" (I am not an activist. I am a poet and a dancer). ^[5]

Early life, education, and career

Pastre was born on 20 November 1924 in Mainz, Germany. She hoped to become a dancer but was encouraged by her parents to study classics, graduated from the Sorbonne, and gained her Agrégation teaching qualification. She taught in lycées in Saumur (1949-1955) and Montgeron (1955-1989). ^[2]

She led a theatre group, which became known as the Geneviève Pastre Company, between 1960 and 1978. ^[1]

She was married for eight years and had two daughters. ^[1]

Writing

Pastre published ten collections of poetry between 1972 and 2005. ^[5] She came out as lesbian with the publication of her 1980 essay De l'Amour lesbien ("About lesbian love") and then published several historical works including Athènes et le Péril Saphique: Homosexualité Féminine en Grèce Antique (Athens and the Sapphic Peril: Homosexuality in Ancient Greece) and L'Homosexualité dans le Monde Antique (Homosexuality in the Ancient World), which are said to " analyze modern mythologizing of the Athenian democracy and other classical institutions from a uniquely feminist and gay perspective", in part in response to Michel Foucault's work The History of Sexuality which she thought suffered from his "misunderstanding of ancient languages and of lesbianism". ^[1]

Activism

Pastre was one of the founders of the Comité d'urgence anti-répression homosexuelle [ fr] (CUARH), in 1979. In the early 1980s she was involved in the radio station Fréquence Gaie (initially a gay community radio station, and since evolved into Radio FG), and was its president from 1982 to 1984. ^[1]

In the 1980s she set up a publishing house, Editions G. Pastre, to publish feminist and progressive writers, and was one of the founders of Les Octaviennes, an organisation of lesbian writers. ^[5] In 1990 she organised the Festival européen de l’écriture gaie et lesbienne in Paris. ^[1]

In 1995 she helped set up a new political party Les Mauves translated as The Lavender Party, which tried, but failed, to run a candidate in the 2002 French presidential election, but which was influential in bringing both France and the World Health Organization to stop classifying trans-sexualism as a mental disorder, and in encouraging Amnesty International to support the right to claim asylum for homosexual people in countries where homosexuality is illegael. ^[5]

The Centre LGBT Paris-Île-de-France [ fr] has named one of its rooms the Espace Geneviève Pastre in her memory.

Selected works

• Pastre, Geneviève (2002). Une femme en apesanteur : mémoires. Paris: Balland. ISBN  978-2715813922.
• Pastre, Geneviève (1980). De l'amour lesbien. Paris: P. Horay. ISBN  270580093X.
• Pastre, Geneviève (1987). Athènes et "le péril saphique" : homosexualité féminine en Grèce ancienne. Homosexualités dans le monde antique: 1. Paris: Libr. "Les Mots à la bouche". ISBN  978-2950089724.
• Pastre, Geneviève (1996). Les amazones : du mythe à l'histoire. Homosexualités dans le monde antique: 2. Paris: Editions G. Pastre. ISBN  978-2-908350-17-3.

References

External links

• "Geneviève Pastre à propos du lesbianisme (interview with Aline Pailler)" (video: 2m 55s). ina.fr. 29 March 1990.
• List of Paster's works at the BNF