French petitions against age of consent laws

An open letter was published in Le Monde, on the eve of the trial of three Frenchmen, (Bernard Dejager, Jean-Claude Gallien, and Jean Burckardt), all accused of having sex with 13 and 14 year old girls and boys. Two of them had then been in temporary custody since 1973 and the letter referred to this fact as scandalous. The letter was signed by 69 people, including Jack Lang (who later served as France's Minister of Culture and Minister of Education), Bernard Kouchner (who has been France's Minister of Health and co-founder of Doctors Without Borders), Michel Bon (formerly CEO and Chairman of Carrefour and of France Télécom and now President of the Pasteur Institute), public intellectuals such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Gilles Deleuze, Roland Barthes, André Glucksmann and Guy Hocquenghem, and nine specialists - five psychiatrists, one doctor, one psychologist, one psychoanalyst, and one social scientist. The document claimed there was a disproportion between the qualification of their acts as a crime and the nature of the reproached acts, and also a contradiction since adolescents in France were fully responsible for their acts from the age of 13. The text also opined that if 13 year old girls in France had the right to receive the pill, then they also should be able to consent.

The 69 people who signed the letter to Le Monde were: Alain Cuny, André Glucksmann, Anne Querrien, Bernard Dort, Dr. Bernard Kouchner, Dr. Bernard Muldworf (psychiatrist), Bertrand Boulin, Catherine Millet, Catherine Valabrègue, Christian Hennion, Christiane Rochefort, Dr. Claire Gellman (psychologist), Claude d'Allonnes, Copi, Daniel Guérin, Danielle Sallenave, Dionys Mascolo, Fanny Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Francis Ponge, François Châtelet, François Régnault, Françoise d'Eaubonne, Françoise Laborie, Gabriel Matzneff, Georges Lapassade, Gérard Soulier, Dr. Gérard Vallès (psychiatrist), Gilles Deleuze, Gilles Sandier, Grisélidis Réal, Guy Hocquenghem, Hélène Védrines, Jack Lang, Jacques Henric, Jean-François Lyotard, Jean-Louis Bory, Jean-Luc Henning, Jean-Marie Vincent, Jean-Michel Wilheim, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean-Pierre Colin, Jean-Pierre Faye, Judith Belladona, Louis Aragon, Madeleine Laïk, Marc Pierret, Marie Thonon, Dr. Maurice Erne (psychiatrist), Michel Bon (also psychosociologist), Michel Cressole, Michel Leyris, Négrepont, Olivier Revault d'Allonnes, Patrice Chéreau, Philippe Gavi, Philippe Sollers, Dr. Pierre-Edmond Gay (psychoanalyst), Pierre Guyotat, Pierre Hahn, Pierre Samuel, Dr. Pierrette Garrou (psychiatrist), Raymond Lepoutre, René Schérer, Dr. Robert Gellman (psychiatrist), Roland Barthes, Simone de Beauvoir, Victoria Therame, Vincent Montail

source: 'Open letters published in French newspapers'; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ French_petitions_against_ age_of_consent_laws; Taken from Wikipedia: 17 October 2009; Open letter in Le Monde: 26 January 1977