A plaque honoring the last two men to be executed in France for being gay has been vandalized (for the second time this year).
While Paris is currently hosting the 2018 Gay Games, the city has also seen a historic plaque defaced.
A plaque in the central Montorgueil district which honors Bruno Lenoir, a cobbler who was in his 20s, and Jean Diot, a servant who died at 40, was recently found covered in black paint and homophobic posters, according to RTE.
The flyers painted onto the ground said, “To make a child, I must be a man and not gay.”
The two men honored by the sign were the last gay men to be put to death in France for homosexuality. The men were burned alive outside Paris’s City hall on July 6, 1750. Homosexuality was then decriminalized in 1791.
It was Mayor Anne Hidalgo who publicly shared the news of the plaque’s defacement. In a tweet she wrote, “Shocked by this latest shameful demonstration of homophobia.”
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that the plaque has been vandalized. Just earlier this year in May, flowers put along the site were burned by arsonists.
In addition, a rainbow crosswalk in Paris was also vandalized in June, according to GayPopBuzz. Homophobic insults were painted across the pedestrian crossing in the Marais district.
In response, Hidalgo announced that some of the crosswalks, which were only meant for Pride Month, would become permanent.
Despite all of the homophobic vandalism, it’s good to know that Paris has an ally in Mayor Hidalgo.
h/t: RTE, GayPopBuzz
