Out of the French closet: the political participation of gays and lesbians in France into perspective

The article puts French scholarship regarding gay and lesbian political participation into international (US and European) perspective, with a focus on homosexual movements, mobilization processes, and electoral behavior. The article draws lessons from the available evidence and identifies several gaps: while homosexual movements have been well covered internationally and to a lesser extent in France, the “micro” level of gay and lesbian individuals has been largely neglected. Individual politicization and voting behavior of LGBT people have received little attention in the US and are absent of European and French political science, delineating a large research agenda.