Today, June 28th, we celebrate LGBT+ Pride Day. Throughout the month of June, various organizations have launched campaigns emphasizing education as a key tool to combat LGBT+phobia. It is important to remember that, according to the 2020 report A long way to go for LGBTI equality by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), LGBT+ individuals aged 15 to 17 experience more harassment than their older peers. The role of education is highly valued, as it is considered an effective antidote against violence. However, what kind of education are we talking about? An education that takes Michel Foucault as a reference?
Currently, the mistaken idea that Michel Foucault (1926–1984) was a role model for the LGBT+ community and sexual education is still widespread. Through this article, I aim to dismantle this notion by demonstrating that Foucault was not only not a positive reference for the LGBT+ community but also contributed to the harmful hoax linking homosexual people with child sexual abuse. This will be explored further below.
On one hand, Foucault signed a French petition against age of consent laws that sought to decriminalize sexual relations between adults and minors under fifteen years old. On the other hand, his defense of the decriminalization of pedophilia went even further, as it is known that Michel Foucault sexually abused children in Tunisia. Therefore, having Foucault as an LGBT+ role model damages and worsens the image of the community, showing great inconsistency and a lack of ethics.
Moreover, research shows that some university professors teach Foucault’s work while consciously hiding his defense of sexual violence, including rape and pedophilia. According to a study, this could lead to the normalization of pedophilia and impunity for abusers, while simultaneously silencing and revictimizing survivors.
There is no scientific evidence supporting the idea that homosexual people are more prone to pedophilia. In other words, there is no relationship between child sexual abuse and the sexual orientation of the perpetrator. These findings are crucial because they debunk the discriminatory hoax that has existed for many years—that homosexuality entails child sexual abuse. Therefore, we cannot continue to have as an LGBT+ role model someone who not only defended the decriminalization of pedophilia but also committed it, since doing so perpetuates a harmful myth that we have worked hard to overcome.
Editor of Daily 27.
Predoctoral researcher at the Department of Sociology in University of Barcelona.